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A
magnet
(from Greek μαγνήτης λίθος, "Magnesianstone") is a material or object that produces amagnetic field.This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls onother magnetic materials and attracts or repels other magnets. A
permanent magnet
is one that stays magnetized,such as a magnet used to hold notes on arefrigerator door. Materials which can be magnetized, which are also theones that are strongly attracted to a magnet, are calledferromagnetic. These includeiron,nickel,cobalt,somerare earth metalsand some of their alloys,and some naturally occurring minerals such aslodestone.The other type of  magnet is anelectromagnet,a coil of wire which acts as a magnet when anelectric currentpasses through it, but stops being a magnet when the current stops. Often an electromagnet is wrapped around a core of ferromagnetic materiallike steel, which enhances the magnetic field produced by the coil. Permanent magnets are made from "hard"ferromagnetic materials which are designed to stay magnetized, while "soft" ferromagnetic materials like soft iron areattracted to a magnet but don't tend to stay magnetized.Although ferromagnetic materials are the only ones strongly enough attracted to a magnet to be commonly considered"magnetic", all other substances respond weakly to a magnetic field, by one of several other types of magnetism.Paramagneticmaterials, such asaluminumandoxygenare weakly attracted to a magnet.Diamagneticmaterials, such ascarbonandwater,which include all substances not having another type of magnetism, are weakly repelled by a magnet.The overall strength of a magnet is measured by itsmagnetic moment, while the local strength of the magnetism in amaterial is measured by itsmagnetization.
Magnetic field
Main article:Magnetic field 
The
magnetic field
(usually denoted
B
) is called afield (physics)because it has a value at every point in space. Themagnetic field (at a given point) is specified by two properties: (1) its
direction
, which is along the orientation of acompass needle;and (2) its
magnitude
(also called
strength
), which is proportional to how strongly the compass needleorients along that direction. Direction and magnitude makes
B
avector , so
B
is avector field. (
B
can also depend ontime.) InSIunits the strength of the magnetic field is given inteslas.
Magnetic moment
Main article:Magnetic moment 
A magnet's
magnetic moment
(also called
magnetic dipole moment
, and usually denoted
 μ 
) is avector thatcharacterizes the magnet's overall magnetic properties. For a bar magnet, the direction of the magnetic moment pointsfrom the magnet's north pole to its south pole, and the magnitude relates to how strong and how far apart these polesare. In SI units the magnetic moment is specified in terms of A·m².A magnet both produces its own magnetic field and it responds to magnetic fields. The strength of the magnetic field itproduces is at any given point proportional to the magnitude of its magnetic moment. In addition, when the magnet isput into an "external" magnetic field produced by a different source, it is subject to atorquetending to orient themagnetic moment parallel to the field. The amount of this torque is proportional both to the magnetic moment and the"external" field. A magnet may also be subject to a force driving it in one direction or another, according to the positionsand orientations of the magnet and source. If the field is uniform in space the magnet is subject to no net force,although it is subject to a torque.A wire in the shape of a circle with area
 A
and carryingcurrent
I 
is a magnet, with a magnetic moment of magnitudeequal to
IA
.
Magnetization
Main article:Magnetization
The
magnetization
of an object is the local value of its magnetic moment per unit volume, usually denoted
M
, with unitsA/m. It is a vector 
field 
, rather than just a vector (like the magnetic moment), because the different sections of a bar magnet generally are magnetized with different directions and strengths (for example, due to
domains
, see below). Agood bar magnet may have a magnetic moment of magnitude 0.1 A·m² and a volume of 1 cm³, or 0.000001 m³, andtherefore an average magnetization magnitude is 100,000 A/m. Iron can have a magnetization of around a million A/m.Such a large value explains why magnets are so effective at producing magnetic fields.
Two models for magnets: magnetic poles and atomic currents
See also:Magnetic moment#Examples of magnetic moments
Magnetic pole model
: Although for many purposes it is convenient to think of a magnet as having distinct north andsouth magnetic poles, the concept of poles should not be taken literally: it is merely a way of referring to the twodifferent ends of a magnet. The magnet does not have distinct "north" or "south" particles on opposing sides. (Nomagnetic monopolehas yet been observed.) If a bar magnet is broken in half, in an attempt to separate the north andsouth poles, the result will be two bar magnets,
each
of which has both a north and south pole.The magnetic pole approach is used by professional magneticians to design permanent magnets. In this approach, thepole surfaces of a permanent magnet are imagined to be covered with 'magnetic charge', little 'North pole' particles onthe North pole and 'South poles' on the south pole, that are the source of the magnetic field lines. If the magnetic poledistribution is known, then outside the magnet the pole model gives the magnetic field exactly. By simply supplementingthe pole model field with a term proportional to the magnetization (see Units and Calculations, below) the magnetic field
 
within the magnet is given exactly. This pole model is also called the "Gilbert model" of amagnetic dipole.
[1]
Griffithssuggests (p. 258): "My advice is to use the Gilbert model, if you like, to get an intuitive "feel" for a problem, but never rely on it for quantitative results."
Ampère model:
Another model is the "Ampèremodel", where all magnetization is due to the effect of microscopic, or atomic, circular "bound currents", also called "Ampèrian currents" throughout the material. For a uniformly magnetizedbar magnet in the shape of a cylinder, the net effect of the microscopic bound currents is to make the magnet behaveas if there is a macroscopic sheet of electric currentflowing around the surface of the cylinder, with local flow directionnormal to the cylinder axis. (Since scraping off the outer layer of a magnet will
not 
destroy its magnetic field, it can beseen that this is just a model, and the tiny currents are actually distributed throughout the material). Theright-hand rule due to Ampère tells which direction the current flows. The Ampere model gives the exact magnetic field both inside andoutside the magnet. It is usually difficult to calculate the Amperian currents on the surface of a magnet, whereas it isoften easier to find the effective poles for the same magnet.
Pole naming conventions
The north pole of the magnet is the pole which, when the magnet is freely suspended, points towards the Earth'smagnetic north polein northern Canada. Since opposite poles (north and south) attract whereas like poles (north andnorth, or south and south) repel, the Earth's present
geographic north
is thus actually its
magnetic south
. Confoundingthe situation further, the Earth's magnetic field hasreversed itself many times in the distant past.In order to avoid this confusion, the terms
 positive
and
negative
poles are sometimes used instead of 
north
and
south
,respectively.As a practical matter, in order to tell which pole of a magnet is north and which is south, it is not necessary to use theearth's magnetic field at all. For example, one calibration method would be to compare it to anelectromagnet, whosepoles can be identified via theright-hand rule.
Descriptions of magnetic behaviors
There are several types of magnetism, and all materials exhibit at least one of them. This section describes,qualitatively, the primary types of magnetic behavior that materials can show. The
 physics
underlying each of thesebehaviors is described in the next section below, and can also be found in more detail in their respective articles.
•
Ferromagneticandferrimagneticmaterials are the ones normally thought of as 'magnetic'; they are attracted to a magnet strongly enough that the attraction can be felt. These materials are the only ones that can retainmagnetization and become magnets; a common example is a traditionalrefrigerator magnet.Ferrimagnetic  materials, which includeferritesand the oldest magnetic materialsmagnetiteandlodestone, are similar to but weaker than ferromagnetics. The difference between ferro- and ferrimagnetic materials is related to their microscopic structure, as explained below.
•
Paramagneticsubstances such asplatinum,aluminum, andoxygenare weakly attracted to a magnet. This effect is hundreds of thousands of times weaker than ferromagnetic materials attraction, so it can only bedetected by using sensitive instruments, or using extremely strong magnets. Magneticferrofluids, althoughthey are made of tiny ferromagnetic particles suspended in liquid, are sometimes considered paramagneticsince they can't be magnetized.
•
Diamagneticsubstances such ascarbon,copper,water,andplasticare even more weakly repelled by a magnet. All substances not possessing one of the other types of magnetism are diamagnetic; this includesmost substances. Although force on a diamagnetic object from an ordinary magnet is far too weak to be felt,using extremely strongsuperconducting magnetsdiamagnetic objects such as pieces of leadand evenfrogs  can belevitatedso they float in midair.Superconductorsrepel magnetic fields from their interior and are strongly diamagnetic.
Physics of magnetic behaviorsOverview
Magnetism, at its root, arises from two sources:
•
Electric currents ,or more generally movingelectric charges, create magnetic fields (seeMaxwell's Equations
 
).
•
Manyparticleshave nonzero "intrinsic" (or "spin") magnetic moments. (Just as each particle, by its nature, has a certainmassandcharge,each has a certain magnetic moment, possibly zero.) In magnetic materials, the most important sources of magnetization are, more specifically, theelectrons'orbital angular motion around thenucleus, and the electrons' intrinsic magnetic moment (seeElectron magnetic dipole moment). The other potential sources of magnetism are much less important: For example, thenuclear magnetic momentsof thenuclei in the material are typically thousands of times smaller than the electrons' magnetic moments, so they arenegligible in the context of the magnetization of materials. (Nuclear magnetic moments
are
important in other contexts,particularly inNuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) andMagnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI).) Ordinarily, the countless electrons in a material are arranged such that their magnetic moments (both orbital andintrinsic) cancel out. This is due, to some extent, to electrons combining into pairs with opposite intrinsic magneticmoments (as a result of thePauli exclusion principle; seeElectron configuration), or combining into "filledsubshells" with zero net orbital motion; in both cases, the electron arrangement is so as to exactly cancel the magnetic moments
 
from each electron. Moreover, even when theelectron configuration
is
such that there are unpaired electrons and/or non-filled subshells, it is often the case that the various electrons in the solid will contribute magnetic moments thatpoint in different, random directions, so that the material will not be magnetic.However, sometimes (either spontaneously, or due to an applied external magnetic field) each of the electron magneticmoments will be, on average, lined up. Then the material can produce a net total magnetic field, which can potentiallybe quite strong.The magnetic behavior of a material depends on its structure (particularly itselectron configuration,for the reasonsmentioned above), and also on the temperature (at high temperatures, randomthermal motionmakes it more difficultfor the electrons to maintain alignment).
Physics of paramagnetism
Main article:Paramagnetism
In a paramagnetic material there are
unpaired electrons
, i.e.atomicor molecular orbitalswith exactly one electron in them. While paired electrons are required by thePauli exclusion principleto have their intrinsic ('spin') magneticmoments pointing in opposite directions, causing their magnetic fields to cancel out, an unpaired electron is free to alignits magnetic moment in any direction. When an external magnetic field is applied, these magnetic moments will tend toalign themselves in the same direction as the applied field, thus reinforcing it.
Physics of diamagnetism
Main article:Diamagnetism
In a diamagnetic material, there are no unpaired electrons, so the intrinsic electron magnetic moments cannot produceany bulk effect. In these cases, the magnetization arises from the electrons' orbital motions, which can be understoodclassicallyas follows:When a material is put in a magnetic field, the electrons circling the nucleus will experience, in addition to their Coulombattraction to the nucleus, aLorentz forcefrom the magnetic field. Depending on which direction the electron is orbiting,this force may increase thecentripetal forceon the electrons, pulling them in towards the nucleus, or it may decreasethe force, pulling them away from the nucleus. This effect systematically increases the orbital magnetic moments thatwere aligned opposite the field, and decreases the ones aligned parallel to the field (in accordance withLenz's law).This results in a small bulk magnetic moment, with an opposite direction to the applied field.Note that this description is meant only as anheuristic;a proper understanding requires aquantum-mechanical  description.Note that all materials undergo this orbital response. However, in paramagnetic and ferromagnetic substances, thediamagnetic effect is overwhelmed by the much stronger effects caused by the unpaired electrons.
Physics of ferromagnetism
Main article:Ferromagnetism
A ferromagnet, like a paramagnetic substance, has unpaired electrons. However, in
addition
to the electrons' intrinsicmagnetic moments wanting to be parallel to
an applied field 
, there is also in these materials a tendency for thesemagnetic moments to want to be parallel to
each other 
. Thus, even when the applied field is removed, the electrons inthe material can keep each other continually pointed in the same direction.Every ferromagnetic substance has its own individual temperature, called theCurie temperature,or Curie point, abovewhich it loses its ferromagnetic properties. This is because the thermal tendency to disorder overwhelms the energy-lowering due to ferromagnetic order.
Magnetic Domains
Magnetic domains in ferromagnetic material.
Main article:Magnetic domains
The magnetic moment of atoms in aferromagneticmaterial cause them to behave something like tiny permanentmagnets. They stick together and align themselves into small regions of more or less uniform alignment calledmagneticdomainsor Weiss domains. Magnetic domains can be observed with amagnetic force microscopeto reveal magnetic domain boundaries that resemble white lines in the sketch.There are many scientific experiments that can physicallyshow magnetic fields.Effect of a magnet on the domains.When a domain contains too many molecules, it becomes unstable and divides into two domains aligned in oppositedirections so that they stick together more stably as shown at the right.When exposed to a magnetic field, the domain boundaries move so that the domains aligned with the magnetic fieldgrow and dominate the structure as shown at the left. When the magnetizing field is removed, the domains may notreturn to a unmagnetized state. This results in the ferromagnetic material being magnetized, forming a permanentmagnet.
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faildude21

This is a whole lot of info thanks!

reply03 / 04 / 2009
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