Magnetic Circuits: Why Does Flux Divide in Parallel?

[anupadhikari]

Current flows... But Flux doesn't flow in magnetic circuit. It is a sense of electrons being divided in parallel circuits. We don't have any such in Magnetic Circuit like electrons in electric circuit. Then Why does the flux divides in Parallel system of magnetic circuit?

 

[jsgruszynski]

Current flows... But Flux doesn't flow in magnetic circuit. It is a sense of electrons being divided in parallel circuits. We don't have any such in Magnetic Circuit like electrons in electric circuit. Then Why does the flux divides in Parallel system of magnetic circuit?

The mathematics of magnetic flux is the same as current so even though it doesn't have an obvious "carrier" that actually flows, you can treat it as if it did. The result is that you get a dual to electrical current. Of course the reason is the duality between electric and magnetic fields in Maxwell's equations.

This is one of those cases when the simplistic intuition of physical carrier flow actually hurts you. It's also why physicists sneer at anything that isn't strictly mathematics-based: intuitions can lie to you if you don't understand the abstraction and the underlying math that was approximated to justify the abstraction.