A bar magnet is overhanging vertically above a closed coil of wire. The bar magnet is unconfined. It remainder vertical as it come near the coil falls straight through the coil and then continues to fall downward, away from the coil. Does the path of the current induced to flow in the coil as a result of the motion of the magnet reverse itself as the magnet passes through the coil?

Answer:

Presume the bar magnet is initially suspended north end down. After that the magnetic field is downward inside, above and below the magnet. The magnetic field is strongest in the magnet and weaker above and below the magnet but everywhere downward. The numerous downward-directed magnetic field lines through the loop thus increases as the magnet approaches the coil is a maximum when the magnet is in the coil and decreases as the magnet falls away from the coil. For the reason that the magnetic field lines are always downward but the change in the number of downward-directed field-lines through-the-coil that is occurring itself changes from increasing to decreasing the current induced (in accordance with Faraday's Law) must reverse its direction in order for the magnetic field produced by the induced current to reverse as by Lenz's Law it should to always be in that direction which tends to keep the number of magnetic field lines downward through the coil from changing.

Now presume that the magnet is initially suspended north end up. After that the magnetic field is downward above inside and below the magnet. The argument above still putting but with the word downward replaced by the word upward everywhere that it occurs.

Note that in moreover case the direction of the current does indeed reverse itself.