View transcript
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- [Announcer] Remember
field trips and first dates?

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Generations have come to the Exploratorium

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to learn and play.

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Now we need your help,

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and every dollar you
donate will be doubled.

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Sustain the wonder.

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(upbeat music)

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- Welcome to the Exploratorium,
this is Storytime Science.

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My name is Viv and today's
episode is magnets.

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We're gonna be reading "Mr.
Pack Rat Really Wants That"

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by Marcus Ewert, and it's
illustrated by Kayla Stark.

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(upbeat music)

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This book is about a magical magnet,

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and we know that magnets
aren't really magic,

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magnets are part of the
real world, they're science.

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Let's get reading.

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Mr. Pack Rat felt so good,
he thought he might explode.

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He had just built his first midden.

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What's a midden?

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It's a nest pack rats build
out of whatever's lying around.

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Mr. Pack Rat's midden had a theme, brown.

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He gathered brown pine needles,
brown sticks and leaves,

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brown acorns, pine
cones, and chips of bark.

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"Brown is such a cozy
color," Mr. Pack Rat said,

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"and my midden is the
brownest midden ever."

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"Whew, I need a break." he said.

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So he walked to his favorite meadow.

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The wild flowers were all in bloom.

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"Oh, these colors!" he gasped.

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"Juicy reds, perky oranges,
and lemony yellows.

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It's like a rainbow fell from the sky

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and broke into a million pieces."

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He thought of his midden,

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"Argh," he cried.

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"A one color midden is so boring,

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only these colors can make me happy."

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Mr. Pack Rat had an old metal bar

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that had been in his
family a long, long time.

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The bar didn't look like much,

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but with the right words
it worked like a magnet,

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a magical magnet.

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He pointed the bar at
the flowers and said,

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"All these flowers that I see,

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magnet, bring them home with me.

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Mr. Pack Rat, Mr. Pack Rat, Mr.
Pack rat really wants that."

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Klinnng! The bar rang like a bell.

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The magic jumped out

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and pft, pft, pft plucked every flower.

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Mr. Pack Rat marched home

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with the flowers bobbing behind him.

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Mr. Pack Rat was delighted
with his colorful midden

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for about a week.

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But then the flowers did what flowers do,

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they withered and turned brown.

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Mr. Pack Rat was back
to a one color midden

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and the dead flowers kind of stank.

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"Eew!" He cried, "I'm going out."

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He walked to his favorite beach.

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That day the waves had pushed
their most beautiful shells

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onto the sand.

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"Such glittering shapes and
forms," Mr. Pack Rat gushed.

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"It's like a million pirates
emptied their treasure chest

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onto the beach,

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and shells don't wilt."

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Pointing the bar, he said,
"Seashells that the ocean gave,

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magnet draw them to my cave,

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Mr. Pack Rat, Mr. Pack Rat,
Mr. Pack Rat really wants that.

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The bar rang, klanngggg!

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The magic jumped out and
rackle, rackle, rackle,

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scooped up every shell.

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Mr. Pack Rat strode home,

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the shells jostled noisily behind him.

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Mr. Pack Rat was truly
happy for a couple of hours.

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But away from the sun, sand, and sea,

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the shells didn't dazzle.

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And what can you do really do
with shells anyway? Sort them?

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"Argh," Mr. Pack Rat shouted,

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"you shells are so boring, I'm going out."

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He walked to his favorite store.

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Everywhere he looked
there was something cool.

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"Toys, and tools, and games," he cried,

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"telescopes and fishing rods.

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It's like a million scientists invented

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every fun thing they could think of.

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I want it all."

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The bar was already in his hand.

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"I have lots, but I want more,

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magnet, empty every store.

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Mr. Pack Rat, Mr. Pack Rat, Mr.
Pack Rat really wants that."

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Klongggg! The bar rang very loudly.

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The magic picked up every item,

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and schwizz, schwizz, schwizz,

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threw it at Mr. Pack Rat.

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This time he had to run home

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to keep from getting clonked on the head.

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Mr. Pack Rat's cave was so cluttered

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that there wasn't room for him to play

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with his new belongings.

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There was barely enough room for him.

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"Eeep!" He squeaked. "I can't breathe."

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He just managed to squeeze outside.

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"Stars flared against the jet black sky,

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infinite space," he cried,

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"majestic vastness, I want
it, I want it, I want it.

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I don't see a reason why I shouldn't own

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the whole night sky.

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Mr. Pack Rat, Mr. Pack Rat, Mr.
Pack Rat really wants that."

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Klungggg! The bar rang
like a gong of doom.

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The magic tugged at every
star, moon, and planet.

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A comet headed straight for Mr. Pack Rat.

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"No, no, no," he shrieked.

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"I take it back. I don't
want the whole night sky,

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please, magnet, I take back my wish."

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The bar leapt out of his hands.

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When it finally fell, it
hit the ground with a thud.

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Everything was quiet.

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The moon, stars, and planets
sat in their proper places.

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The comet headed somewhere else.

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Mr. Pack Rat threw himself on the ground.

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"I was almost squashed," he wailed.

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"How did everything go so wrong?
I just wanted to be happy."

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He cried and cried until
he finally fell asleep.

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When Mr. Pack Rat woke
up the next morning,

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the sun was as yellow as fresh butter.

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Breezes chased each other in the grass.

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Every leaf wore crystals of morning dew.

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"Ahhh," said Mr. Pack Rat. He was smiling.

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He immediately reached for
the bar, but then he stopped.

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"No, no, no Mr. Pack Rat," he said,

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"what were you going to wish for? The sun?

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Mr. Pack Rat sat down in a pretty glade.

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Sunshine warmed his face,

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breezes tickled his fur,

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butterflies danced in the air around him.

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Mr. Pack Rat was happy.

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He looked at the metal bar,

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"You know, magnet," he said at last,

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"I've been using you all wrong.

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I kept asking you for
things to make me happy,

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but I never knew when I was happy already,

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and actually I'm quite
happy a lot of the time.

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What I need is a friend
to remind me of that."

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The bar began ringing merrily,
klinga-ding, klinga-ding.

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"What is it magnet? said Mr. Pack Rat.

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"You sound so hap-"

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Mr. Pack Rat stopped, then he giggled,

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"I get it. Klinga-ding."

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From then on the bar rang,
klinga-ding, klinga-ding,

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whenever Mr. Pack Rat was already happy.

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Klinga-ding-ding, it rang,

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when Mr. Pack Rat returned
everything to the store

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and he saw the smile on
the shopkeeper's face.

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Klinga-ding-ding, it rang,

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when Mr. Pack Rat brought
the shells back to the beach

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and rearranged them on the sand.

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Klinga-ding, rang the bar,

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when Mr. Pack Rat spread the dead flowers

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all over the meadow,

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the dead flowers would become mulch

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from which new flowers would spring.

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And klinga-ding, klinga-ding,
rang the bar very softly,

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when Mr. Pack Rat curled
up on his brown midden,

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ready for a good night's sleep.

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Mr. Pack Rat, Mr. Pack Rat,
Mr. Pack Rat really likes that.

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(upbeat music)

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All right, so we're
gonna make a mini version

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of an exhibit that we have
here at the Exploratorium

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called the Strange Attractor.

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It's a magnet exhibit.

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And for that, we're gonna
need a piece of cardboard.

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So you want some sturdy cardboard.

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And I'm gonna use a hot glue
dispenser and a glue stick,

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but you can do this with Scotch tape too.

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And I have magnets.

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I have some pretty strong magnets here,

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but you don't need super strong magnets,

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you can do this with any magnets
that you might have around.

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I also have one magnet
that's a donut shaped,

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got a hole in the middle,

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and that's because I'm going to tie

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a piece of string from it,

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but you don't need to have one of these,

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you could just glue or
tape a piece of string

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to the magnet that you have,

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that doesn't necessarily
have a hole in the middle.

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Okay.

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So I am going to take my,

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oh, first of all, what I'm gonna do

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is I'm gonna mark the north
and the south of the magnets.

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Now you know that opposites attract.

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So I know that one of these is north,

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and what it's stuck to is south.

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So I'm just with a Sharpie marker,

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I'm just marking one end as north,

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and the other end as south.

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I've got four magnets, I'm gonna do five.

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So one side will be an S and
the other side will be an N.

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All right.

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Now I have my hot glue
dispenser all set up

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and I'm gonna do these randomly.

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And I marked these

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because I don't want the same
side of each magnet facing up.

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And I'm gonna spread
them out a little bit.

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Ooh, that just caught another
magnet, glad I marked it.

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Ooh, they're so strong, okay.

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So I'm gonna put the
south side, the S side,

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down on the dollop of glue,

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and I'm gonna do another
one kind of next to it.

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And this time, instead of the south side

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going down onto the glue,

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I'm gonna put the N side, the north side,

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down on the glue.

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Okay.

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And another dollop of
glue, let me do that here.

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And again, let me do the N side facing up,

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so the south side's stuck to the glue.

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And again, you could do this with tape

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because magnets are strong enough

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to even go through cut Scotch tape.

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And let's do another
dollop, say, right there.

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Ooh, I think I need
another stick of hot glue,

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I won't bother with it right this second,

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but let's do an N side down.

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Now, let me get my other glue stick,

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and another dollop right there,

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and, oh, it doesn't really matter,

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let me have the S side down
and the N side sticking up.

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So that's gonna dry a little bit.

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And in the meantime,

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because I couldn't draw very
well, I used rubber stamps,

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and I have a rubber stamp
of Frankenstein's face,

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or his head.

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And so I put those on the rubber
stamp, and I cut them out,

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and I cut two of them out
because these are gonna go

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onto this other magnet
that's gonna be hanging.

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I also had a rubber stamp of
a box of Froot Loops cereal.

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Or you could draw a bird, or
a butterfly, or something,

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but you want to draw it twice

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so that you can glue or tape one picture,

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the one side of the magnet,

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and then the other to the
other side of the magnet.

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Now, I am going to tie a piece
of string onto this magnet,

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remember I have a hole
in the middle of it,

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and I'm gonna try the tie
it quickly and securely.

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So let me do a double knot.

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Okay.

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So that is pretty secure.

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Again, if you don't have
a hot glue dispenser,

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and a hot glue stick, or a
magnet with a hole in it,

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you can just do this with Scotch tape.

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Regular glue kind of
takes too long to dry.

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All right, and now I'm
going to put some hot glue

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on one side of this magnet,

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and I'm going to stick
Frankenstein's face on there,

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making sure not to burn myself.

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So, whoops,

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here we have Frankenstein's
face on one side of that magnet,

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and now I'll do Frankenstein's face

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on the other side of the magnet.

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We'll do the glue.

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Again, you may want an adult assistant

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because grown ups are
really good to have around

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to do some of those things that
might be a little bit scary,

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like using hot glue.

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All right, and there goes
Frankie's face on the other side.

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All right, so now there's
double faced Frankenstein.

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So now I'm gonna turn this upside down

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so that you don't see the magnets,

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and I'm just going to hold this above,

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and move him around a little bit.

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Ooh, it's like the haunted
head of Frankenstein.

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If you put a ton of
magnets on the underside,

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that would do this even more.

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But this is what's happening.

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This magnet that's on the string

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is either being pulled by,

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or pushed away from the different magnets

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because some are facing north,
and some are facing south,

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some are facing positive,
some are facing negative.

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And that's just like a Strange Attractor

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here at the Exploratorium,

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and by the way, we're open again.

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So you can go online and buy tickets,

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or come on down to the Exploratorium

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and experience it firsthand.

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And like I said,

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if you did a bunch of
magnets on the underside,

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there would be even more motion

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for a haunted Frankenstein head.

[00:17:33.04]
If I had done the box of Froot Loops,

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it would be the haunted box of cereal.

[00:17:38.05]
(upbeat music)

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Time for Poetry Corner.

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All right, I wrote some poems,

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once again, I wrote three magnet haikus,

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and then I wrote a longer magnet poem.

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So remember haikus are counting poems.

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The first line has five sounds,

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the second line has seven sounds,

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the third line again has five sounds.

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Here are my magnet haikus.

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North pole and south pole,

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the earth is a big magnet,

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compass, do your thing.

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Opposites attract,

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south to north and north to south,

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it's a proven fact.

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Batteries have ends,

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positive and negative,

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so a charge can flow.

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All right, now onto the poem that I wrote,

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that's called "What If People
Were More Like Magnets?"

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Let us pretend we're magnets,

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and then we just might see the
ones we think are different,

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our friends who are meant to be.

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Like north and south, or black and white,

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will never be the same,

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the languages we speak at home,

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the foods with different names,

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the holidays we celebrate,

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the music that we listen to,

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we seem to be so opposite
in everything we are and do,

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but differences are awesome things.

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A welcome hand I will extend,

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I'll be more like a magnet
to my newest bestest friend.

[00:19:39.06]
(upbeat music)

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