Is there such thing as magnetic interference?

[Guest432]

Say I place a magnet on a table, and I have a metal in close proximity. Will its magnetic field change due to the presence of this metal, however minute?

What if I had another magnet or the table itself is made of materials the magnet is slightly attracted to? Does this phenomenon even exist?

 

[vanhees71]

Sure, if you put a magnet close to a material the before randomly oriented dipole moments of the electrons inside the material are (partially) ordered, which provides additional contributions to the magnetic field imposed. That's quite analogous to the electric field where the electric dipole moments are also ordered (and/or, if you have a conductor the charge distribution of the medium changes due to the electric force imposed by the imposed electric field).

 

[Guest432]

Sure, if you put a magnet close to a material the before randomly oriented dipole moments of the electrons inside the material are (partially) ordered, which provides additional contributions to the magnetic field imposed. That's quite analogous to the electric field where the electric dipole moments are also ordered (and/or, if you have a conductor the charge distribution of the medium changes due to the electric force imposed by the imposed electric field).

Thanks! My limited googling just yielded electromagnetic interference. Do you have any more information about playing magnetic interference?

 

[vanhees71]

The reason is that this is not named "interference" but induction. A good start may be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_susceptibility