Question

Do you think an electromagnet can be used for separating plastic bags from a garbage heap? Explain.

Answer 1

An electromagnet is a temporary magnet that starts to act like a magnet when a current is passed through it. It is not like a permanent magnet, as the strength of the magnetic field of an electromagnet can be varied by varying the quantity of current that flows through it. The polarity of an electromagnet can be altered by reversing the flow of electric current.

Complete Solution:
An electromagnet works on the principle that a magnetic field is produced when a current is passed through a conductor. And in this way the coil also induces a magnetic field and acts as a magnet.

Now coming to the question, can we use Electromagnet to distinguish plastic bags? Well, the answer is absolutely NO. An electromagnet is just like a normal magnet and it can attract only the iron or magnetic materials pieces only. All the plastic materials do not have any magnetic property so electromagnet cannot be used to distinguish plastic bags from garbage heap.

Magnets can only be used to distinguish materials that have magnetic property from a heap for garbage such as iron or other magnetically active materials

So, For the answer to our question, we can say that electromagnets can not be used to distinguish plastic bags from a garbage heap.

Note:
Electromagnets can be used to distinguish iron or other magnetically active materials and also some electronic waste and that will reduce the waste from our garbage heap and after that it will be a bit easier for us to distinguish plastic bags from a garbage heap. So directly we cannot attract plastic materials from a magnet but actually electromagnets can be very useful for garbage maintenance too.