Peter looked on his cereal box, he saw that it read 'contains added iron.'
Peter wanted to see the iron in his food.
Peter got out a magnet, and the iron came to the top of the flakes. They were tiny pieces of black.
Why did the iron come to the top of the flakes?
I think that the iron came to the top of the flakes because when iron is attracted to a magnet they are raised up to the surface. I know that, but I need help on the force that pulled them up to the surface, and another question I was stuck on:
Why were the tiny iron pieces black?
Was it because when two elements combine they turn to black from the chemical reaction, because originally Iron the element is grey. But it didn't say a compound, so the iron is an element right? So why are the pieces black :S please help, i'm confused!!
Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "cereal iron" to get these possible sources:
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/ironfromcereal.htm
http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/Try%20At%20Home/IronCereal.htm
http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp
http://chemmovies.unl.edu/chemistry/beckerdemos/BD007.html
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:yOsB-qLQ7MwJ:studentorgs.vanderbilt.edu/vsvs/New%2520VSVS%2520Site/Web%2520Lessons%25202006/Iron%2520in%2520Cereal/for%2520web/Iron%2520in%2520Cereal%2520Training.pdf+cereal+iron&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=us&client=safari
(I learned something new too.)
In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search. Also see http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
The iron in the cereal came to the top of the flakes because it was attracted to the magnet. This happened because the iron in the cereal is in the form of small particles of iron filings or iron powder. These particles are ferromagnetic, which means they can be magnetized and attracted to a magnet. When Peter placed the magnet near the cereal flakes, the magnetic force caused the iron particles to move towards the magnet, making them come to the top of the flakes.
To understand why the iron in the cereal is attracted to the magnet, it's important to know that magnets have two poles - a north pole and a south pole. Like poles repel each other, while opposite poles attract. Iron is a ferromagnetic material, which means it has magnetic properties and can be magnetized. When exposed to a magnet, ferromagnetic materials like iron temporarily become magnetized and are attracted to the magnet's opposite pole.
In this case, the magnet used by Peter had a strong enough magnetic force to attract the iron particles in the cereal. The tiny pieces of black that came to the top of the flakes were the iron particles that were pulled upwards by the magnet's force.