How Do We Distinguish Poles in Liquid State Magnets?

[monty37]

how do we distinguish poles in case of a liquid state magnet ..or do they tend
to lose their magnetic property?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Magnetism is a property not of iron atoms, but of bulk iron. When you heat iron, it loses its magnetism long before it melts.

 

[Andy Resnick]

There are some materials: ferrofluids for example, that respond to magnetic fields. As an extreme example, MRI is used to detect the dipole orientation of (aqueous) hydrogen. I'm not sure if you are thinking of either.

There's not much sense to speak of 'poles' in those cases, since the material can flow.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Ferrofluids do not display ferromagnetism, nor does water in NMR. While "magnetism" is a huge field with many different behaviors, I think it's safest to assume posters are talking about ferromagnetism unless they specify otherwise.

 

[Andy Resnick]

At the risk of getting into a meaningless argument, here's a report of ferromagnetism in an undercooled liquid metal:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/xy4yfc3l0qe27wa7/