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Class 10 Physics (India)
Course: Class 10 Physics (India) > Unit 4
Lesson 1: Magnets and magnetic fieldsIntro to magnetic fields (Why fields?)
Let's explore what magnetic fields are and why do we like to talk about them? Created by Mahesh Shenoy.
Want to join the conversation?
- if north poles repel each other, then why does the north pole of a magnetic compass point towards north direction?(13 votes)
- It is true that like poles repel and unlike poles attract. But it is also true that the north pole of a magnetic compass points towards the geographical north direction of the Earth. This sure does create a confusion but the answer is quite simple.
Earth behaves like it has a giant magnet within it. This magnet, however, works rather differently. Earth's geographical north pole is actually its magnetic south pole and the geographical south pole is actually its magnetic north pole.
So, when you ask why the north pole of the compass and the north pole of Earth attract (points in the north direction), it is because the geographical north pole is actually the magnetic south pole. It is already known that unlike charges attract.
This is why the north pole of a magnetic compass points towards the geographical north (magnetic south).
Hope this helps..(18 votes)
- Won't the magnetic fields decrease from outer edge to inner edge? coz magnetic fields are higher in small distances??(8 votes)
- The density of magnetic field lines determine the power of a magnet in that area and in the outer edge lines are less dense.(2 votes)
- Can the magnetic field affect electrons around it?(3 votes)
- An electron can be deflected by magnetic as well as electric field.
A magnetic field exerts a force on a moving charge, where the force is proportional not only to the field strength but also to the speed of the charged particle.
The direction is perpendicular to the field and perpendicular to the direction of motion.(3 votes)
- What exactly is a magnetic field? Why does this push and pull happen?(3 votes)
- Why exactly do like poles repel each other while unlike poles attract each other?(2 votes)
- Because the lines of north pole are find a south pole to merge into but when another north pole emerges, they don't merge into it and as lines don't intersect, they try to repel each other(1 vote)
- Atanimation shows that fragrance of jasmine flower starts reducing from the center towards the outer end, shouldn't it be other way round ,that is, fragrance should start reducing from the outer end to the center, do you think this should be same for magnets? 4:34
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!(2 votes) - Mahesh and David should do a collab video. That would be ill(2 votes)
- are the two magnets pushing each other and they are moving away apart? or on of the magnets is moving and the other does not(1 vote)
- Newton's third law of motion , "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Going by that, it would be correct to say that both magnets are pushing each other.(1 vote)
- defination of magnetic field ? difference between magnetism and magnetic field(1 vote)
- The magnetic field is the area around a magnet in which the effect of magnetism is felt.(1 vote)
- you pushed the ball with your teet(0 votes)
Video transcript
- [Narrator] I have always
been fascinated by magnets. I can play with them for hours together. The most curious question
I've always had about this is how does the magnetic force
transfer over a distance? You don't need to touch it to push it! I think that's what fascinates everyone about magnets, right? So how does the magnetic force work? How does it travel over a distance? Does this magnet somehow know that there is another
magnet out over there? How does it know? Is it aware of it's surrounding? What's going on? Well, here's how we like
to think about it today. We don't think that the magnets directly push and pull on each other. Instead, we like to say that
this magnet, for example, creates some kind of an
influence around itself making it's presence felt far away. And it's because of this influence the second magnet gets affected. So let me give an example. The other day when I entered the house, I immediately got a
strong smell of jasmine. Now I don't like jasmine a lot but my wife loves to wear it. So because of that fragrance, I immediately could feel
the presence of my wife somewhere in the house
from a far away distance. So you see what the flowers had done? The flower had created
some kind of fragrance all around the house,
making it's presence felt. And the moment I walked
in, my nose came in contact with that fragrance and I
automatically experienced a smell. In a similar manner, we could think that this magnet, for example, is creating some kind
of magnetic fragrance all around it. And when the second
magnet comes in contact with that fragrance, it automatically doesn't
experience a smell, but it automatically experiences a force. So this magnetic fragrance, we
give a technical name for it. We call it the magnetic field. So this magnet is generating
a magnetic field around itself and when the second magnet
comes in contact with the field, it's getting pushed by that field. And similarly, even this
magnet is generating its own magnetic field which
I've not shown over here, and that field is the one that's pushing and pulling on this magnet. So it's the fields that push
and pull on other magnets. However, there is a big difference between magnetic fields and the
fragrance created by flowers. You see, what we call as
fragrance is basically some molecules which are
spread out by the flower which mix into the air and
enters into my nostrils and creates a smell. But over here the
magnets are not spreading out any particles into the air. There are no particles moving anywhere. But still their magnetic field exists. So that makes it a little
bit more interesting, a little bit deep. But another question we
could ask over here is if there are no real
particles that we can detect, then how do we know that
this magnetic field is real? That it's really present? It exists, how do we know that? Well here's how. Suppose I keep this magnet
close to this magnet. And we know that right
now this magnet is pushing this magnet away from it. But what do you think would happen if I were to instantly
made this magnet disappear? You might expect the force on the magnet to also disappear, right? But careful studies,
careful experiments show us that the force does not
immediately disappear. It shows us that for a very,
very small fraction of a second that force still exists. The force does not instantly disappear, but it lasts for a very
small amount of time. How do you explain this? Again, if you come back to our example, let's say I go to my wife and
I take those jasmine flowers and throw it outside the window. What do you think is going to happen? Well, my wife is gonna be pretty mad at me but besides that, do you think
that the smell in the room, the fragrance in the room
immediately vanishes? No, it doesn't, right? It would still be present for some time even though those flowers are gone. It's presence can still
be felt for some time. You may have experienced this. Similarly over here,
this magnet is producing its own magnetic field around it. Now, when we make this magnet disappear, it's field doesn't instantly disappear. It fields last for very,
very small amount of time. Now that time is extremely small, maybe fractions of a nanosecond, something that we may
not be able to detect in our experiments, but it doesn't matter. It does exist for a very small time. And it's during that time,
this magnet can still feel the presence of the other magnet. So the very fact that the
force is still present for a very short time,
but it doesn't matter. However short it may
be, it doesn't matter. It existed for a short time, even when this magnet was removed, convinces us that magnetic
fields are very real, that they're there. And the field concept is so incredible that we have now applied
them even for other forces over a distance. For example, how do these
charges pull and push each other over a distance? Well, we can say that the charges produce an influence around themselves making their presence felt. This influence is called
the electric field. It's called electric field because it only affects electric charges. And similarly, even the force of gravity, say between Earth and the Moon, acts over a distance. How does it work? Well we say both the Earth and the Moon create a gravitational field. And it's the gravitational field that pushes other objects
which have masses. Gravitational fields affect masses, electric fields affect electric charges, and magnetic fields affect
magnetic materials or magnets. So to summarize, how do magnets
push and pull each other over a distance? Well, they don't directly. A magnet will create a
magnetic field around it making its presence felt far away. And when any other magnet comes
in contact with that field, it automatically experiences a force.