Driving Force: The Natural Magic of Magnets

Here's one you may not have thought about in a while: Magnets, how do they work and what do they do? Well, James D. Livingston, a former specialist in magnetic research for General Electric, has answers for you in this look at the technological marvels performed by the power of magnets. "Very few of the teenagers listening to the latest rock or rap through their earphones today," he writes, "realize the debt they owe to improved permanent magnets." No doubt. But as Livingston points out, magnets are at the core of videocassette recorders, telephones, radios, cassette recorders, washers, dryers, vacuum cleaners, clocks, printers and television. And you thought they were just something you stuck on the refrigerator door.