Magnetic Metal Puzzles

Some metal puzzles incorporate magnetism and this magnetism can make playing and operating them a very different experience from all other types of metal brain teasers. Metal is a special material with regards to the fact that certain types of it can be magnetized or are what magnets are made of but it is also true that not every type of metal is a magnetic material which is why a puzzle entirely made of metal can offer such a unique experience and challenge when it involves magnets. Magnetism can be incorporated into a puzzle that is made of non-magnetic materials such as wood and plastic or even certain types of metal that are not magnetic but would have to be done by adding and attaching magnets an example would be a magnetic speed cube. Puzzles that are made from non-magnetic materials can incorporate and make use of magnets as the magnetic force of them is able to work through these non-magnetic materials because non-magnetic materials such as plastic, wood and certain types of metals don't stop a magnetic force from passing through them as long as these non-magnetic materials are not too thick and that the magnets are powerful enough. Some metal brain teasers that involve magnetism can be entirely made up of magnets or when excluding the magnets made up of entirely magnetic material whilst others can be partly or when excluding the magnets entirely made up of metal that is classified as non-magnetic material. What the different parts of the metal puzzle that involves magnetism are made of will impact how it is played and solved because the different parts will be attracted, repelled or neither by the magnet(s) the metal puzzle contains depending on whether that part is a magnet, magnetic material or a non-magnetic material. The strength of the magnet(s) and how magnetic the magnetic material is (as some types of metal are more magnetic than others) will impact how they interact with each other or how strongly they attract and repel one another and therefore how the metal puzzles that incorporate them will operate which can make the task they set easier or more difficult to complete. The fact that magnets have north and south poles mean they can attract and repel each other which is why they are sometimes incorporated into puzzles as well as the fact that they can be made into any shape and even when they are small in size some types can still attract and repel strongly.

There are quite a number of metal brain teasers that incorporate magnetism with the challenges they offer varying and sometimes the magnetism isn't even significant to how the puzzle is solved. Magnetism can be incorporated into a metal brain teaser just as a way of keeping the pieces locked together if it is, for example, an assembly challenge but the trick to how the pieces come apart into separate pieces and attach together again is actually nothing to with magnetism but something else. This means some metal puzzles that use magnetism could have just as easily been made without any magnets involved at all and would still work as the trick to it doesn't require them it would just require when it would not have them that the pieces lock together in a different way. Although I do personally find metal puzzle pieces connecting together by magnetism one of the cooler and more fun ways they can connect and lock together and maybe if one did not incorporate magnetism to do this but did it another way then it would not be as fun to play with. For some metal puzzles, magnetism is essential and pivotal in terms of the trick to the challenge and would have to be designed in a completely different way to make them work without magnets or possibly they couldn't be made any other way that doesn't involve magnets as magnetism is essential to them working. These puzzles in which magnetism is essential to the trick of the challenge it presents can offer the most unique and some of the more difficult challenges of any metal puzzle. The type of challenges in which I have seen magnetism incorporated into metal puzzles are disassemble/reassemble, entangle/disentangle, jigsaws and construction with the common denominator being between these types of challenges is that the user is expected to build or put something together. For some metal brain teasers, it could even be possible to use or add magnets when there are none to make the challenge more enjoyable and to either change or add to the challenge it already presents but the puzzle will have to be made of magnetic material or at least some parts of it to work and react with the magnet(s).

A puzzle that involves magnetism can be a very different experience from all other metal brain teasers in which the user can develop and use skills that are unique and specific to using magnets although there are skills such as concentration and the ability to keep a steady hand that can be got and will translate from puzzles that don't involve magnetism to metal puzzles with magnetism. Metal brain teasers with magnetism, in particular, can be used just as a toy to just have fun with and mess around with which is an important quality to have as when the challenge has been completed and solved it will still have a use as a toy which means it has replayability as well. Using magnets is a physics lesson and using and playing with them when they are part of a puzzle can make them more fun and interesting experience rather than just using and playing with them by themselves and therefore a metal brain teaser with magnetism could be a good way to get somebody interested in science. Puzzles that involve magnetism obviously don't need glue to get a magnet it contains to stick to another of its magnet pieces or other magnetic material pieces it contains which in comparison to puzzles that do use glue as a method to stick together its pieces means no sticky mess and can mean a less time consuming, a less frustrating and a less fiddly experience connecting the pieces together. Construction or assembly metal puzzles that use magnetism to connect the pieces they are made up of together can be very pleasant to do as connecting the pieces sometimes only demands that the user has the pieces touch or are very close in proximity to each other in order for them to stick together and connect. With construction or assembly metal brain teasers that don't involve magnetism, it can be much more difficult and fiddly to get the pieces they are made up of to connect and stick together via connecting slots or holes and can require that the player must shove the pieces into each other or that the pieces have to align in a very specific way in order to ensure they connect and can then stick together. Having to apply less physical force to a metal brain teaser in order to get the pieces to connect and lock together means there is less chance of it breaking when doing this and magnetism can definitely aid with this when it is used to connect the pieces of one together. One of the coolest and most unique aspects of metal puzzles with magnetism is that the user can move and manipulate a piece(s) it contains if it is a magnet or is made from magnetic material without personally touching that piece(s) by repelling or attracting the piece(s) with a magnet.

When a piece from a metal brain teaser that is either magnetic material or a magnet is lost the fact the piece is magnetic could make it easier to track down and this could be especially helpful when the piece that is lost is small. This is because a magnet could be hovered over the space and close to the surface where the piece went missing and potentially pick it up which could be very helpful if I can't locate it as it is small and can't be spotted. That the pieces of the metal puzzle are magnetic may help to stop them from being lost in the first place as I can stick them to each other and they will stay stuck together as long as I don't pull them apart as it is when pieces are separate or separated that I find they are more likely to become lost and difficult to track down especially if they are small or could camouflage with the surrounding environment such as the floor for example.

Some magnets that are used in metal brain teasers can be annoying and tricky to operate depending on their size, weight, shape and how powerful they are but also the size, weight, shape and how magnetic the piece they are supposed to be attracting or repelling. Smaller magnets and magnetic pieces are going to be more difficult to get a hold of and manoeuvre and are likely to be weak magnetically but not always and the shape of them in combination with their size can also make them difficult to grip and awkward to manoeuvre. The weight of the magnet or magnetic piece of the metal brain teaser can also be a contributing factor and impact how difficult it is to operate by either being too light or too weighty to hold which can make in particular keeping a steady hand whilst holding the magnet or magnetic piece challenging and metal puzzles with magnetism can demand a steady hand(s) is kept. If the magnet that is part of the metal brain teaser is weak then it could make it difficult to attract and repel the other magnets or magnetic material pieces that are a part of the puzzle which could mean the puzzle falls apart easily or it is very tricky and time-consuming to get it to work. On the other hand, if is strong and the magnetic material pieces are very magnetic then they could be very difficult to separate when they do stick together or lock into each other and do so when I don't want them to. When dealing with a metal puzzle that has magnetic parts and which is tricky to operate then concentration, patience and handling are all skills of the utmost importance and that can all be required at the same time simultaneously. These skills can be acquired from other puzzles including metal ones that don't involve magnetism and be applied to metal puzzles that do but some of the handling techniques for using magnets in combination with other magnets or magnetic material parts that are necessary for metal puzzles with magnetism can only really be learnt by using and practising with magnets and magnetic material parts that will be ideally part of a puzzle but don't have to be.

To be on the safe side I keep my metal brain teasers that involve magnetism separate and away from electronic devices such as a TV, laptop, digital clock or a mobile phone either when storing the puzzles away or when playing with them to avoid damaging these electronic devices even though with some it would be extremely unlikely that this would happen no matter how strong the magnet that it contains is or how close it was. Even if the magnet that the metal puzzle contains is weak or the likelihood of damaging the electronic device is very small or seems improbable I still find it better to be safe than sorry. Replacing electronic devices can be very expensive depending on what they are and also what the electronic device, such as my laptop, has stored on it could be very time consuming to retrieve and put back on if lost as a result of damage done by a magnet from a metal puzzle if it is even possible to retrieve and put back on at all as I may not have backed some or everything that is lost up although it is unlikely that magnets from a metal brain teaser would damage a laptop. Therefore I am somewhat careful when playing with a metal puzzle with a magnet and try to keep it away from any electronic device that is in the vicinity of where I am playing with it. I don't need to keep it that far away from an electronic device just far enough away that they are obviously not touching or that there is a chance that they can come into contact with each other and touch like for example if I were to accidentally knock the puzzle or a part of it that is the magnet into the direction of the electronic device or if I were to forgetfully place the puzzle or the magnet part of it near the electronic device. To be safe I place and use the metal puzzle that has a magnet on a clear table when it is one that needs to be placed down on a solid surface to play with and solve removing any electronic devices that I am worried might get damaged off the table. I also remove my watch and make sure I have my wallet in my pocket as my mechanical watch and bank cards that are in my wallet could also be potentially either damaged or affected by a magnet. I find it can be easy to forget to take care with metal brain teasers with magnets in respect to not allowing them to come near and to come in contact with certain items they could damage or affect so I leave a written note with the puzzle to remind me of this. An electronic device that is an exception in regards to letting a metal puzzle with a magnet come in contact with it is a fridge as these commonly have magnets stuck on them and could be a place for me to sick and put the puzzle when not playing with it if the puzzle will not stick out too much from the fridge and the whole puzzle will stick well to the fridge. Otherwise, I would store the metal puzzles that contain a magnet when I have finished playing with them in a plastic container or a wooden drawer/box or on a shelf that is away from anything that the magnets they contain could potentially damage. These are stored with other puzzles in these containers or places as I only have so much storage space for puzzles so long as these other puzzles contain nothing the magnets might damage or interfere with which might be true of board games that contain an electronic device for example

Magnets do lose their power with time but this process is extremely slow and gradual so does not concern me at all in regards to a factor that leads to them demagnetizing and this impacting in any way how the metal puzzle that incorporates them works. I still need to be careful with magnets that belong to a metal puzzle as there are other ways that they can be damaged or lose their magnetism as I want the magnets and therefore also the puzzle to last a long time and the puzzle may simply not function without them or work faultily. A danger to magnets belonging to metal puzzles being demagnetised that they could realistically come in contact with or occur to them when I use them is them being exposed to heat especially temperatures of 80 degrees Celsius or more for prolonged periods of time which could occur if I put them near or on my fireplace or radiator. The more likely danger to happen however is a physical force being inflicted on them such as me dropping them onto a hard surface or them bashing into another hard and solid object such as metal, for example, the other pieces of the puzzle the magnet(s) belong to whilst playing with it. The more times the magnet is hit and the greater the force with which this is done the more damage or demagnetisation can occur and the harder and weightier the object that it is being hit with can also be attributes and factors that lead to more damage. This is the danger that could be unavoidable or difficult to mitigate as the metal puzzle may demand that the magnetic pieces it contains collide into each other in order to solve it or that it is really tricky to avoid this happening whilst trying to solve it and therefore I will have to try my best to be as gentle as possible when doing so which means doing it in a slow and deliberate way. Another danger that I am aware of with magnets that can demagnetize them is putting them very near to each other that they are almost touching or that they actually touching each other with the North poles touching or almost touching each other and/or the south poles touching or almost touching each other for long periods of time so it is vitally important when I have finished with the puzzle that they are not left this way. How vulnerable a magnet or magnetic material is to any of these dangers depends on the type of metal it is made from which means a magnet made from one type of metal can be more at risk of demagnetisation from certain dangers than another made of a different metal. They, however, can be re-magnetised when they have lost power by using a powerful magnet on them unless the damage done to them is so extreme and therefore irreversible such as the damage that could be done to them by heat.

In summary, magnets I find are always fun to play with regardless of whether they are part of a puzzle or not but it is also interesting to see how they have and can be incorporated into a metal puzzle which can give it a unique feel and challenge as opposed to metal brain teasers without magnetism.