darthoctopus said:There are monopoles and there are dipoles. Monopoles are sinks/sources (e.g. point masses, charges) which give a nonzero divergence. Magnetic dipoles (the type you find in solenoids, say) give zero divergence because on the whole they are neither sources nor sinks. So no, they are not the same thing.
Um, I suppose you could wave a Hall probe around in space. I don't think it's very meaningful to point to something and call it a magnetic pole in the same sense as you could with one half of an electric dipole, precisely because there are no sources/sinks. I guess this probably renders the electron thing moot too.
Bob S said:Some people have built particle detectors to search for magnetic monopole "rays", pull monopoles out of meteor dust (and moon dust?), and even built the magnetic equivalent of a toroidal electric circulating current, using ground-up meteor dust in balls of epoxy. No monopoles found.
Bob S
Magnetic poles are the two points on a magnet where the magnetic field is strongest. One pole is called the north pole and the other is called the south pole. These poles have opposite charges and attract or repel each other.
In the context of electricity and electronics, a sink/source refers to a device or component that either absorbs (sinks) or supplies (sources) electric current. A sink is typically a component that draws current from a circuit, while a source is a component that supplies current to a circuit.
Magnetic poles are points on a magnet where the magnetic field is strongest, while electric poles are points on an electric charge where the electric field is strongest. Unlike magnetic poles, electric poles can be both positive and negative, whereas magnetic poles are always paired as north and south.
Magnetic poles are created by the movement of electric charges, such as electrons. When these charges move, they create a magnetic field around them. In a magnet, the movement of electrons in the atoms aligns the magnetic fields, creating the two poles.
Magnets have two poles because of the way the magnetic fields are created. The movement of electric charges in the atoms aligns the magnetic fields in one direction, creating a north pole, and in the opposite direction, creating a south pole. This results in the two poles being present in all magnets.