Magnetic pull force

1. Mar 17, 2014

Neil_Caffrey

The problem statement, all variables and given/known data
Hello,
I am suppose to provide an equation to calculate the force that a disk magnet pulls a steel ball with respect to the distance between those two objects.

My idea is to calculate the difference between the energy density with and without the ball and then calculate the gradient of this change.
It will look something like F=∇(W0-W),
where W0 is the energy density with the ball and W is the energy density without it. The difference between them would be the permeability of the ball which varies on its size and material.

I don't have to calculate it exactly, just present some thought process. My question is: Is the method acceptable or should i rather focus on Maxwell tensor?

2. Mar 18, 2014

tman12321

I think you have the right idea, but I can't tell exactly what you mean. Assuming that the ball is paramagnetic steel, its magnetization would be M = χ H, where χ is the magnetic susceptibility and H is the auxiliary field. H is related to the magnetic field by H = μ B, where μ is the permeability of the material ( μ = μ0 (1+χ) ). The force on a dipole is F = grad(m dot B), where m is the magnetic dipole moment, so the force density on the ball would be f = grad(M dot B). Then ∫∫∫ f dV (integral over the volume) would give the force. So F = χ μ ∫∫∫ grad(B dot B) dV.

3. Mar 18, 2014

rude man

Magnetic pressure = d BB0
where d = effective thickness of ball in direction of B field. This assumes infinite μ of the ball.

This formula would be exact for a rectangular material of infinite permeabiluity but for a ball the area is the cross-section and the thickness is some kind of average I guess.