Come aboard the Magnet Journey

Helen-Ann Brown Epstein1

  • 1Virtua Health Sciences Library, Center for Learning, Mount Laurel, New Jersey, USA.

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Magnetism01:30

Magnetism

Magnets are commonly found in everyday objects, such as toys, hangers, elevators, doorbells, and computer devices. Experimentation on these magnets shows that all magnets have two poles: one is labeled north (N) and the other south (S). Magnetic poles repel if they are alike and attract if unlike. Moreover, both poles of a magnet attract unmagnetized pieces of iron.
An individual magnetic pole cannot be isolated. No matter how small, every piece of a magnet contains a north pole and a south...
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Magnetic Force01:18

Magnetic Force

In addition to the electric forces between electric charges, moving electric charges exert magnetic forces on each other. A magnetic field is created by a moving charge or a group of moving charges known as the electric current. A magnetic force is experienced by a second current or moving charge in response to this magnetic field. Fundamentally, interactions between moving electrons in the atoms of two bodies produce magnetic forces between them.
The magnetic force acting on a moving charge...
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Magnetic Flux01:18

Magnetic Flux

The magnetic flux measures the number of magnetic field lines passing through a given surface area. The SI unit for magnetic flux is the weber (Wb). Magnetic flux is a scalar quantity. It depends on three factors: the strength of the magnetic field B, the area through which the field lines pass, and the relative orientation of the field with the surface area.
Suppose a surface is divided into elements of area dA. For each element, the component of the magnetic field that is normal to the...
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Potential Due to a Magnetized Object01:24

Potential Due to a Magnetized Object

Magnetic dipoles in magnetic materials are aligned when placed under an external magnetic field. For paramagnets and ferromagnets, dipole alignment occurs in the direction of the magnetic field. However, the dipoles align opposite to the field in the case of diamagnets. This state of magnetic polarization due to the external field is called magnetization. Magnetization is defined as the dipole moment per unit volume. It plays a similar role to polarization in electrostatics.
The vector...
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Colors and Magnetism03:02

Colors and Magnetism

Color in Coordination Complexes
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
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Magnetic Force On A Current-Carrying Conductor01:25

Magnetic Force On A Current-Carrying Conductor

Moving charges experience a force in a magnetic field. Since the magnetic fields produced by moving charges are proportional to the current, a conductor carrying a current creates a magnetic field around it.
Consider a compass placed near a current-carrying wire. The wire experiences a force that aligns the needle of the compass tangentially around the wire. Thus, the current-carrying wire produces concentric circular loops of magnetic field. The magnetic field generated by a wire can be...
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