RUNNING HEADER: MAGNETIC ANIMAL REPELLENT 1

Magnetic Animal Repellent

Sidney Boakye, Michelle Miller, Joaquin Valda

October 17, 2017

Dr. Ales Psaker

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Observation and Research

Everyone has seen it, dead animals on the side of the road or near power lines. What is

especially saddening is that they are all due to man-made technology. These deaths are

unnecessary and can be prevented. Therefore, our group is undergoing a project that will prevent

animals from coming near dangerous man-made structures using magnetic fields.

Birds are the most common animals that utilize Earths terrestrial magnetic fields to

navigate when migrating. These magnetic fields are very weak and range from 30 to 60

millionths of one tesla (Staff, L. S.). Birds have photochemical molecules consisting of

carotenoid, porphyrin, and fullerene units that act as the birds compass. These molecules are

light sensitive and create a short lived negative and positive charge that align with the magnetic

field. The charge remains as long as they preside within that field. While less is know about

mammals sensing magnetic fields, studies from National Geography have shown that cattle and

deer graze along Earths magnetic field. It has also been observed that when resting they face

either north or south. It is still unclear how this adaptation benefits mammalia in their daily lives.

When a bird comes into contact with a magnetic field stronger than the Earths field they

attempt to move away from it. In our experiment we intend to utilize this evolutionary trait in

order to steer animals away from area which pose a threat to their safety. We will be creating a

device which produces a magnetic field. Then we will strategically place our device in locations

where we would like to reduce animal activity.

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Question

We will be investigating how magnetic fields affect an animals navigation system. We

will research the best method to use magnetic fields to repel animals from a specific location.

Our questions for this project are:

How strong of a magnetic field can we hope to produce? It would be logical to assume

that a stronger magnetic field would perform better when asked to deter animals. The best way to

find this out would be first researching using the resources available to us, then testing in the

field. Another question would be How do magnetic fields affect the behavior of animals?. It is

crucial to understand this as it will help us better serve our purpose of protecting animals. If we

generate our magnetic fields incorrectly they may further endanger the animal or be total

ineffective.
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Hypothesis

By developing and constructing a device that generates a magnetic field we will be able

to manipulate the behavior of animals and steer then away from a location which will bring them

into harm.
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Materials and Design

We will make a solenoid out of copper wire and have a ferromagnetic material in

the middle to get a strong magnetic field. This ferromagnetic material will be an iron rod because

of its cost-effectiveness and availability. Two AA batteries will run a current through the copper

wire making a magnetic field that is intensified by the iron rod. A Vernier magnetic field sensor

will be used to test the strength of the magnetic field produced by our device. This will allow us

to determine if we need to upgrade or change our power source.

The batteries and the solenoid will be encased in a plastic box so they are protected from

weather conditions and from any animals becomes too curious. When testing for effectiveness on

birds a method we plan to use would be to attract the bird using a bird feeder while the magnetic

field device is close to the feeder. From this we could determine if our device affected birds by

comparing the time spent at our bird feeder with the magnetic field device against the time spend

if it is not present. We can also compare if birds even approach the feed when the device is

present versus without it. To test if the presence of the device is not frightening the birds we can

do testing where the device is present but has been turn off. In the case of larger land roaming

animals, we could perform our test on cattle. First finding an available cattle farm we could see if

cattle would approach and remain next to our device. We would conduct the test not only on and

off, but also at various height levels.

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Data Analysis

We will use various methods to test and analyze the efficiency of our project. We will

test if the magnetic field affects both birds and mammals. Then we will test how strong of a

magnetic field we can produce.

We will first test with birds by placing bird feeders on certain areas and have a camera

keep surveillance on them to see how many birds feed off of them for a day or two if needed.

Then we will set up our device near the bird feeders to see if the magnetic field stops the birds

from going to the feeders. We will also test other types of animals by placing dry food in a

certain area and observe the natural inhabitants response with and without the device. This will

help us test how effective our magnetic field is at repulsing animals from our magnetic field

device. To determine the strength of the magnetic field we will use Vernier technology. We will

setup this experiment by placing the device we make in a closed environment, free from any

disturbances. Then we will place a Vernier magnetic field sensor at varying distances from the

device, measuring the magnitude of the magnetic field at each point. From that we will import

the data to Logger Pro to analyze the data. This will help us determine how close our device

needs to be in order to affect the birds or mammals.

Our project will theoretically affect the birds more than any other animal because they

have been proven again and again to be the most sensitive to changes in the magnetic field. The

device we are building is projected to be complete by the date of December 19, 2017. This will

allow use the Winter Break holiday and the month of January to complete our testing before the

Science Fair.
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References

Patent US5884426 - Magnetic device for repelling birds. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12,

2017,

from https://www.google.com/patents/US5884426

Staff, L. S. (2012, November 15). How Do Birds Navigate? Retrieved October 12, 2017,

from

https://www.livescience.com/32276-how-do-birds-navigate.html

A. M. (2008, August 25). Cattle, Deer Graze Along Earth's Magnetic Field. Retrieved

October

16, 2017, from

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080825-magnetic-cows_2.html