How does an astatic magnetometer work?

[Wilfrid Somogyi]

The only books I've been able to find are fairly old and are not written very clearly. Would someone be able to put it into A-level terms? I'm not worried about knowing any of the complicated mathematics behind it, only the conceptual side. Although if anyone fancies giving both then that would be fantastic.

Thanks!

 

[davenn]

hi there
welcome to PF :)

since you haven't stated what you so far know, here is the basics ...

An astatic magnetometer is for determining the gradient of a magnetic field by measuring the difference in reading from two magnetometers placed at different positions.

A normal style magnetometer has only a single sensor and can detect the magnetic field strength at a single point
whereas an astatic magnetometer, as stated above, will indicate the change in field strength over an area ( gradient between 2 points)hope that helps :)

Dave

 

[Wilfrid Somogyi]

That does help! Could you explain how exactly it shows the field strength. I've seen setups involving two bar magnets and some kind of suspension but why two and how do you measure the field strength?

 

[davenn]

for measuring field strength ... just google how does a magnetometer work ? there's many pages with that info :)
There are a bunch of different styles of magnetometers tho the process is similar :)Dave