Use Staples to see the Magnetic Field Experiment

PROCEDURE
1) Squeeze your stapler with no paper in it, and collect 20 bent staples.
2) Put staples on piece a paper (I use card stock).
3) Then pull paper over a magnet just so the magnet and paper do not touch.

Place a bar magnet under a piece of paper. Sprinkle the staples around the magnet. What happens to the staples? How do they align themselves with respect to the magnet? They align themselves according to the direction of the magnetic field. At the poles of the magnet, the staples are straight up and down; in the middle of the magnet, the staples are aligned parallel to the length of the magnet.