/sci/ - Science & Math

I have been working on a model similar to the newton cradle and other "kinetic art" that has an interesting science/physics attraction and because it has science/physics involved I thought /sci/ might be the place to post about it

The version I have now is made of drinking straws, small ball bearings, and neodymium magnets from ebay and some from old hard drives. I was planning on building a larger model using PVC pipe, larger ball bearings, and either large neodymium or just stacking them together. The way the small model works is similar to how I hope the large model will work except just bigger. With the small model the steel balls role around the track from start to finish about 5 or 6 times with the max being the occasional 8 or 9. The larger bearings I already have seem to travel smoother in PVC pipe than the drinking straws I am using on the smaller model

My question is do you think a single larger neodymium magnet and many smaller neodymium magnets would have a similar magnetic field? If multiple magnets would have a similar magnetic field maybe have the ability to adjust magnetic fields by swapping around magnets could allow for finer adjustment

>copy and paste "Thanks in advance." to the end of the post
"Thanks in advance."