5.2 T HE B AR M AGNET

. T HE B AR M AGNET One of the earliest childhood memories of the famous physicist Albert Einstein was that of a magnet gifted to him by a relative. Einstein was fascinated, and played endlessly with it. He wondered how the magnet could affect objects such as nails or pins placed away from it and not in any way connected to it by a spring or string. FIGURE . The arm of the statuette mounted on the chariot always points south. This is an artist’s sketch of one of the earliest known compasses, thousands of years old.