Magnets and Televisions

WHAT TO DO

WARNING. Do not do this with your television or computer monitor at home. The images on your monitor can be permanently distorted. We use old monitors and donπt mind if they are permanently distorted.

Gently place the magnet near the front of the computer monitor. Observe the pattern that forms. Try rotating the magnet to a different position. How did the pattern change?

HOW IT WORKS

On the front surface of the inside of the monitor there is a special material called a phosphor. This phosphor lights up when a tiny charged particle called an electron hits it. To make a picture on a television or computer monitor a beam of electrons is scanned across the screen. This beam is turned on and off at just the right times to make the screen light up in the right places to produce the picture. Three different phosphors are used to make a color image.

When you place a magnet near the screen is bends the electron beam causing the image to be distorted and the wrong colors to appear.