Will this help?

[Rob Hearn]

I'm an arts student, but I like science. Maybe I could start off the first non-crap thread in this board by asking a question about something I don't understand

Like, say...

How do magnets work?

[Atangaladhion]

God does it all.

[the-enemy]

[s]Rob Hearn wrote on 02:16, 14th Jan 2005:
Maybe I could start off the first non-crap thread in this board...



er - didn't do very well then, did we?

[papercutheart]

HAHAHA, Is this like a wind-up thread then?

[amac]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

[munchingfoo]

How does getting a 6 in a computer science essay work????


Perhaps I should have got you too read it over this time too rob.

/me cries.

Still though, maverage grade of 16.9 isn't bad.

[nimar]

[s]Rob Hearn wrote on 02:16, 14th Jan 2005:
I'm an arts student, but I like science. Maybe I could start off the first non-crap thread in this board by asking a question about something I don't understand

Like, say...

How do magnets work?


Hi Rob

Magnetism is an intrinsic property of a material, but you have to thick of the material on the atomic level with the atoms and their respective electrons. An electron itself has a property called 'spin' which essentially makes it into a mini bar magnet (the easiest way to think of this is to imagine a little spinning ball). Anyway spin can either point 'up' or 'down'. Now it is adding up these spins which gives rise to magnetism - but in the majority of atoms there are as many up spins as down spins for the elctrons and so they cancel out and there is no magnetic field. In some materials though there is an imbalance in the number of spins and this then gives a magnetic field.

That's a really basic explanation - hope it helps.

[Zorro 8-|]

[s]nimar wrote on 11:22, 28th Jan 2005:
Magnetism is an intrinsic property of a material, but you have to thick of the material on the atomic level with the atoms and their respective electrons. An electron itself has a property called 'spin' which essentially makes it into a mini bar magnet (the easiest way to think of this is to imagine a little spinning ball). Anyway spin can either point 'up' or 'down'. Now it is adding up these spins which gives rise to magnetism - but in the majority of atoms there are as many up spins as down spins for the elctrons and so they cancel out and there is no magnetic field. In some materials though there is an imbalance in the number of spins and this then gives a magnetic field.


Actually that's not right. Magnetism is due to the electron orbiting the nucleus (a moving charge creates a magnetic field), not due to electron spin. The effect of spin is much less important than the orbital 'motion' of the electron (and spin has nothing to do with magnetic fields anyway).

Furthermore, for normal materials the small magnetic fields created by each electron-nucleus pair has a random orientation in space, not just'up' and 'down' as for electron spin.

In the case of magnetic materials, most of the electrons are spinning in the same direction around their respective nucleii, and all the wee magnetic fields point in the same direction and add up.

[Zorro 8-|]

I have been looking around, and a lot of websites use the term spin when talking about magnetism. However, I'm pretty sure they mean the orbital spin rather than the intrinsic spin.

This one seems to have it correctly, and doens't use the word spin a single time. Instead, it talks about orbit alignement.

http://home.att.net/~cat4a/magnetism-IV.htm

If I'm wrong I apologise, but think about it, what's going to produce the biggest magnetic field, the electron spinning around the nucleus, or a tiny wee electron spin?

Besides, spin up and spin down doesn't translate into a direction in space, but rather refers to whether it is parallel to the nucleus' spin or antiparallel to it. So even if all electrons were spin up that wouldn't mean they are all spinning in the same physical direction. And anyway, the electrons don't *actually* spin, do they

I'm not saying electron spin doesn't play any part, but it's certainly not the main effect.

(admin edited post to correct link tags)

[Melkor]

Sorry for all the edits Zorro, was just trying to fix the link to make it clickable

[Wee Nic the Dobber!!!!!]

im sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo interested in magents i want to spend all my freetime talking about them if anyone has any good magnet sites that'd be great!!!!!!!!


nic

[amac]

There was a good magnet game I found a while back. You could move lots of fridge magnets round a space, but so could everyone else who connected. It results in everyone trying to spell their own word and chaos (chaos theory = science = legitamate post) ensuing.

I can't find it now though