Answer to Question #93214 in Electricity and Magnetism for Simon Sophia

Question

How would you screen a sensitive instrument from stray magnetic fields

Answer 1

Magnetic shielding redirect lines of flux (even in quantum physics we have Meissner effect — the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state).

There are some materials:

1) Ferromagnetic metal (anything containing iron, nickel or cobalt). However, some stainless steels are not ferromagnetic.

2) MuMetal (most of these have a high nickel content, with either 50% or 80% nickel in the mix).

For sensitive electronics MuMetal can provide better shielding than steel.