/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.2337118]

Magnets, how they work scifags?

[Anonymous No.2337129]

>>2337021

[Anonymous No.2337132]

bump

[Anonymous No.2337138]

Magnets have magnetic fields that attract items containing iron. Some of the substances attracted to magnets include iron, nickel, and steel. To understand a magnet you must first understand the magnetic field. A magnetic field is created as the result of moving charges such as electrons.
A magnet's magnetic field either attracts or repels certain metals, as well as other magnets. A magnet has two ends that are referred to as poles. One pole is called north and the other one is referred to as south. To attract magnets to each other, you have to place opposite ends of two magnets near each other. Placing like ends of two magnets near each other causes the opposite to occur; the two magnets repel each other.
A magnet is any object that has a magnetic field. It attracts ferrous objects like pieces of iron, steel, nickel and cobalt. In the early days, the Greeks observed that the naturally occurring 'lodestone' attracted iron pieces. From that day onwards began the journey into the discovery of magnets.
These days magnets are made artificially in various shapes and sizes depending on their use. One of the most common magnets - the bar magnet - is a long, rectangular bar of uniform cross-section that attracts pieces of ferrous objects. The magnetic compass needle is also commonly used. The compass needle is a tiny magnet which is free to move horizontally on a pivot. One end of the compass needle points in the North direction and the other end points in the South direction.
The end of a freely pivoted magnet will always point in the North-South direction.
The end that points in the North is called the North Pole of the magnet and the end that points South is called the South Pole of the magnet. It has been proven by experiments that like magnetic poles repel each other whereas unlike poles attract each other.

[Anonymous No.2337147]

[Anonymous No.2337355]

The Biot-Savart law states that the movement of charged particles creates a magnetic field.
In the case of magnetic materials these charged particles are the electrons of the material's atoms.
The electrons of an atom are constantly in motion, and have a quantum spin number, or a particular way the electron orbits around the atom.
The movement of these electrons creates a constant magnetic field.
In all materials, groups of atoms with electrons having the same spin number are clustered together in what are called domains.
Non magnetic materials' domains magnetic fields are random in distribution and cancel, thus no overall magnetic field can be detected.
In magnetic materials such as iron, the domains are much larger and have a less random distribution, thus creating an overall magnetic field.
By running a large current, a temporary strong magnetic field can be generated.
Putting a magnetic material in a strong magnetic field forces the domains of the material to become polarized and align so that the magnetic fields
from the domains are more or less in parallel with each other.
This domain shifting effect gives the material a significant overall magnetic field.
Magnetic materials keep this property for a long time, on the order of decades, thus a "permanent" magnet is created.