Building with Magnets: The Mathematics of Repulsion and Attraction

To the wonder of children, magnets stick together. What will be the shape and properties of an object made of many magnets? Starting from simple experiments with magnetic beads, this lecture explores how local interactions generate unexpected global behaviour.

Chains bend, rings oscillate, and complex structures assemble spontaneously. By analysing these systems with minimal models, we learn how effective material properties emerge from simple rules, offering a clear toy model for understanding how matter forms from interacting constituents.