Hello, I have a question about a clamp meter I have, its a Sperry 600v CAT 3 meter. I'm somewhat newer at using clamp type meters.

So my question is that I have some large nyodium magnets I'm playing around with and when I wave the Magnets close to the center of the clamp or push them in/out through the center of the clamp the meter responds with a large current of anywhere from 4-10 amps.

Is the current being read by the multimeter a consequence of induction in the multimeter clamp coils caused by the magnets. ? Furthermore is the 4-10 amp reading even remotely accurate or is the multimeter just putting out arbitrary numbers when encountered with a magnetic field. I understand the way it is supposed to work... a non liniar current through a wire creates a magnetic field around the wire and the clamp acts as the secondary coil to measure the current. Moving the magnetic obviously would produce an emf in the clamp wires, but the current it's reading is large when the magnets are pushed in and out of the clamp, the magnets are large themselves 1 inch × 1/4 and 4 or 5 of them stacked on one another. Just wondering more or less if the readings from the meter of 4-10 amps would be the actual induced current from the magnets or if the meter is just garbage.

 

Read up on Fleming RH & LH law.
The clamp on is essentially a induced current measuring instrument.

 

It is not a good idea to put magnets on a clamp meter. My clamp meters have a need to be "demagnetized" before use.

 

Is the current being read by the multimeter a consequence of induction in the multimeter clamp coils caused by the magnets. ?

Yes. The reading is from the magnetic field that would be generated by that current through through the clamp.

 

The clamp meter reads a voltage induced by the magnetic field around a current carrying wire. Passing a magnet through it will create a field far larger than a current carrying wire. The current reading is totally anomalous, there is not that current flowing anywhere. You can probably demonstrate that the current reading depends on how fast the magnet is moved.