Mentors Warning: This post does not contain reliable information, Read for intertainment value only
He is correct about Ben Franklin!
Integral
and why does an electron have a negative charge? proton a positive one? the point is... what is this thing we call magnetism.
As far as I can tell, the negative and psoitive charge definitions were totally arbitrary. It is similar to the story surrounding Benjamin Franklin's definition of positive and negative. It may also apply here.
We know that electricity flows from negative to positive. Franklin defined the flow incorrectly, but, out of respect for old Ben, the definition has not changed.
In normal terms, we would really think that the positive pole of a battery is actually the negative, since the electrons flow into the battery at the positive pole. The electrons flow out of the negative pole.
So the definition of positive and negative is arbritrary. In reality, the proton is a sucking force (conseqently should be labeled negative) while the electron appears to be more of a positive force (but it is labeled negative). Perhaps, scientists do this to deliberately confuse use so we cannot encroach upon their sacred ground?
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Here is what I posted in the "How Stuff Works" Forum. Perhaps it will help answer your questions?
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This is an interesting topic. One that I have studied for over 20 years.
Unfortunately, you will not find any good books or articles that explain precisely how a magnet works. The last good book I read was written in the 1930's by a scientist from General Electric. Even then, it wasn't a big book.
From what I've seen, either the information discovered about magnets is classified by the government or it doesn't exist. If it is not classified info, then magnets have been virtually ignored by the scientific community for over 70 years!
Most books and articles written about magnets are written by people who really don't understand them. The people are simply repeating what they heard from their instructor and confusing it.
Exactly how the atomic particles are aligned once iron is magnetized, I don't know. I suspect that the orbit of an electron in relation to the size of the nucleus has a lot to do with magnetism.
However, magnets are fascinating in what is going on inside and what they do.
Magnets are essentially a black hole. Unlike a black hole, however, only electrons pass through (not protons and neutrons).
Magnets feed themselves. The electrons travel from one end of the magnet (expelling end) to the other end of the magnet (sucking end). Consequently, lines of force!
Permanent magnets have small areas of influence where they are anti-magnetic as well. Iron based objects are repelled from those areas.
Magnets are unstable in that the output of the magnet is reduced by about 40% at night. Consequently, permanent magnets are not used for commercial electrical production. They have been deemed to be "unstable" as compared to electromagnets. Permanent magnets do not behave the same on a sunny day as they do at night. To the naked eye it looks the same, however.
Magnets are the only "perpetual motion" device we know of that does not physically harm us.
All iron based metals are magnetic. If you pass a compass along the side of a steel desk or cabinet, you will see the compass alternate between the north and south pole as you move along the surface of the metal. This is due to the fact that the steel was rolled and was not annealed (reheated) after the rolling process.
It is probably not a good idea to rely too heavily on the scientific community to understand what interests you. It is better to sift through the "scientific" info and determine what is really true.
Case in point. Only in the last 10 years has the scientific community classified a magnet as an electronic device. We have used magnets to produce electricity for almost 200 years and it took that long for the source of most of our electric power to be classified as such.
I guess that is how it is supposed to work?
Also, magnets have far more uses than what we currently imagine. Inter-stellar space travel is possible (at any speed) with the use of permanent magnets. Many, many more uses! But I can't get into that just yet.
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And yet more information!
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The reason you cannot put the two poles (N-N) (S-S) together has to do with the output of the magnet. The electrons are expelled from the (north or south pole - my experiments indicate north) in a direction (i.e. clockwise) whereas the electrons are pulled in in a counter-clockwise direction. So if you try to put two clockwise rotating fields together (or counter-clockwise), they will not go.
If you do attempt to put two north poles together, you physically weaken a permanent magnet (permanently) so don't do it with an expensive magnet! Besides with an expensive magnet (like neodymium) it is extremely dangerous!
If you put two magnets together (N-S) you really have only one magnet! If you break a magnet in half, you have two magnets.
