Bar magnets are a mainstay of school science experiments and projects. One such project, a variation of an experiment devised by William Beaty, at the Museum of Science in Boston, allows students to observe a 3D magnetic field pattern. You put iron filings into a bottle of baby oil, then screw the cap back on. Then you place a bar magnet against the outside of the bottle, and you actually see the iron filings "swimming" towards the magnet, thereby revealing the magnet's field pattern in 3D.
If you drop pins, tacks, paper clips or nails on the floor, you can use a bar magnet to help you pick them up. Picking them up individually can be tedious and painful, but if you use a bar magnet, especially a strong one, the items will literally "jump to it." You can even use a bar magnet to "grab" magnetic items that you can't reach. If some of the pins, tacks, paper clips or nails have rolled down a gap in the floorboards, just dangle a bar magnet down there.
Wooly Willy is a magnetic toy consisting of a cartoon picture of a bald-headed man, surrounded by a plastic frame in which there are also some iron filings. You get a bar magnet with the toy, referred to as a magic wand, which you use to "draw" whiskers, hair and eyebrows onto Willy, utilizing magnetic attraction. Often copied by other manufacturers, the toy was invented in 1955 by James Reese Herzog, according to Smethport History.
A pair of small bar magnets is sometimes used to ensure that cupboard doors stay closed. Because north and south poles attract, one magnet is placed on the door, with either pole outward, and another magnet is placed on the cupboard, with the opposite pole outward. Another use for a bar magnet is to make a compass. Tie a piece of string in the center of the magnet and let it swing. When the magnet comes to rest, the north pole will point to the Earth's North magnetic pole.