Why Do Magnets Attract Paper Clips?
Paperclips can either be a very helpful tool at your office, or it can be annoying if they are “floating around” everywhere. A magnet at your desktop can help you structure your workspace, and there are also a lot of other smart magnets, you can design your workspace with.
Why do magnets attract paper clips? Magnets attract paper clips because magnets have a magnetic field, which creates a force, that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials. A paper clip is usually made of steel wire. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron is a ferromagnetic material that is attracted by magnets.
Define value, Map value stream, Create flow, Establish pull and pursuit perfection. These are the five principles of LEAN. Lean is a systematic method for waste minimization within production, but you can also use lean-management to structure your office or daily life in a smarter way - without sacrificing productivity.
Keep on reading, and get smarter of why the attraction between magnets and paper clips can inspire you to structure, design and create a better and “leaner” workspace.
Why do magnets attract paper clips?
As previously mentioned, magnets attract paper clips due to magnets pulling force in other ferromagnetic materials. The most traditional paperclip is made simply by bending a steel wire. The looped shape collects your papers together, but what collects the paperclips? A magnet.
Put a magnet on your desktop, and it will be the attraction to your ferromagnetic materials, so they don’t make a mess.
We don’t want to be too technical about magnetism in today's blog post. No, this post will more focus on, how you creatively can use magnets to design a more structured and lean life by using magnets. First, we take a look back at the history of the paper clip to get some more inspiration.
History of the Paper Clip
According to the Early Office Museum, the first paper clip was patented by Samuel B. Fay in 1867. It was originally intended primarily for attaching tickets to fabrics. The patent also recognized that it could be used to attach papers together.
Nowadays, you can find all kinds of different paper clips in different shapes and sizes. You can even find them in plastic, an be aware, the function of a magnetic paperclip collector will not work with those.
As the paperclip revolutionized to have more functions, the different usages of magnets have also evolved. That is why we challenge you to take a look around your workspace and see if you can come up with some ideas worth implementing in your daily life.
Smart Office Solutions
Just as the paperclip was designed to have a different purpose than collecting paper, one of the most common productivity tools at offices around the world had a similar history. Post-it was made by a mistake.
Not it is a perfectly sticky note to put on a board or your computer screen, but it was not planned to be that way.
The inventor tried to make a super-strong adhesive for tape but failed in that matter. It was not all bad, for the company gained an unexpected success with the discovery to use the glue on paper, thus they created the sticky notes aka Post-it.
With all the smart technology today, you can gather much of your information and mess in your computer. There are still some things which is much nicer to have physically and cannot be replaced by technology.
If you want a more structured, creative and smarter office, try to take a look at our website in the category Office & Boards.
At MagnetPartner We sell both strong and nice-looking magnets for office use. You can either use a board for hanging up your papers and other items with magnets.
That doesn't sound like a revolution for a smarter office. Well, it is not. The design is up to you, and with a little effort and imagination, magnets can help to a lot of cool stuff. We sometimes suggest using magnets as a creative DIY-tool.
One of the things that can be really smart in an office is if you paint a wall or an area with magnetic paint. You don’t get holes in the wall, but a possibility to have a much bigger surface to place your magnetic items on.
It is also possible to paint over the magnetic paint with normal paint, and the wall will still be magnetic, just in your preferred color. The force may be weakened by this, but that can be equalized by using stronger magnets. We are always happy to guide and answer questions on interesting stuff about magnets.
Feel free to contact us, if you have any doubts about how to use our high-quality magnetic paint or any of our other office & board products. We love magnets and strive to be a better supplier every day, so your opinion is important to us.
Get Lean
Not physically, but at your work. Lean is a management philosophy, where you trying to get a perfect system by cutting all unnecessary waste away from your workspace.
Aren't you just creating more unnecessary items by using magnets at your work? Maybe, but you can use magnets to create a more effective and simple structure, which also looks smarter and better.
For instance, you can use a magnetic pocket to hang instructions on the wall, so it is not in the way on the table.
Take a look at our selection of different LEAN-magnets. They can add value to your planning boards, whiteboards, lean boards, and other stuff, where the different magnets and colors can have different symbols.
-Red can symbolize, that a job has yet been commenced
-Yellow can symbolize, that a job is being executed
-Green can symbolize, that the job is done
Sports Magnets
You have probably seen a coach, coaching a team in football, basketball or handball. Often the coach has a board with magnets on that illustrates the players. It is also used before the games at tactic meetings.
The same way you use magnets at your work, you can also use them in sports activities. Both before, during and after the game.
Take a look at our selection of Sports Magnets.
Race Number Magnets
Are you the type of person who prefers endurance sport, or sports activities that require a race number? Then you are probably familiar with safety pins. Avoid damaging your clothes and try to attach your number with magnets instead.
Take a look at our strong, 4 pack race number magnets. We have made sure, that they are so strong, so your number doesn't fall off during a run, no matter what weather conditions you are running in. Be aware, the magnets should be kept away from phones, pacemakers, credit cards etc. that can be affected by magnetism.
Well, we got a little off topic at the end of today's post, but often you can use similar ideas when it comes to inspiration at your workspace or at sports practice. The point is that you can use magnets for all kinds of fun things which also can give better structure, design or value to our daily life and workspace.
We hope you enjoyed this post and will consider using magnets for some of your future projects.
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