floated upon water will set itself with its axis in the magnetic
meridian, but it will be drawn neither northward nor southward;
the forces acting upon the two poles have therefore no horizontal
resultant. And again if a piece of steel is weighed in a delicate
balance before and after magnetization, no change whatever in
its weight can be detected; there is consequently no upward or
downward resultant force due to magnetization; the contrary
parallel forces acting upon the poles of the magnet are equal,
constituting a couple, which may tend to turn the body, but not
to propel it.
Iron and its alloys, including the various kinds of steel, though exhibiting magnetic phenomena in a pre-eminent degree, are not the only substances capable of magnetization. Nickel and cobalt are also strongly magnetic, and in 1903 the interesting discovery was made by F. Heusler that an alloy consisting of copper, aluminium and manganese (Heusler’s alloy), possesses magnetic qualities comparable with those of iron. Practically the metals iron, nickel and cobalt, and some of their alloys and compounds constitute a class by themselves and are called ferromagnetic substances. But it was discovered by Faraday in 1845 that all substances, including even gases, are either attracted or repelled by a sufficiently powerful magnetic pole. Those substances which are attracted, or rather which tend, like iron, to move from weaker to stronger parts of the magnetic field, are termed paramagnetic; those which are repelled, or tend to move from stronger to weaker parts of the field, are termed diamagnetic. Between the ferromagnetics and the paramagnetics there is an enormous gap. The maximum magnetic susceptibility of iron is half a million times greater than that of liquid oxygen, one of the strongest paramagnetic substances known. Bismuth, the strongest of the diamagnetics, has a negative susceptibility which is numerically 20 times less than that of liquid oxygen.
Many of the physical properties of a metal are affected by magnetization. The dimensions of a piece of iron, for example, its elasticity, its thermo-electric power and its electric conductivity are all changed under the influence of magnetism. On the other hand, the magnetic properties of a substance are affected by such causes as mechanical stress and changes of temperature. An account of some of these effects will be found in another section.[1]
2. Terminology and Elementary Principles
In what follows the C.G.S. electromagnetic system of units will be generally adopted, and, unless otherwise stated, magnetic substances will be assumed to be isotropic, or to have the same physical properties in all directions.
Vectors.—Physical quantities such as magnetic force, magnetic induction and magnetization, which have direction as well as magnitude, are termed vectors; they are compounded and resolved in the same manner as mechanical force, which is itself a vector. When the direction of any vector quantity denoted by a symbol is to be attended to, it is usual to employ for the symbol either a block letter, as H, I, B, or a German capital, as H, I, B.[2]
Magnetic Poles and Magnetic Axis.—A unit magnetic pole is that which acts on an equal pole at a distance of one centimetre with a force of one dyne. A pole which points north is reckoned positive, one which points south negative. The action between any two magnetic poles is mutual. If m1 and m2 are the strengths of two poles, d the distance between them expressed in centimetres, and f the force in dynes,
| f＝m1m2 / d 2 | (1) |
The force is one of attraction or repulsion, according as the sign of the product m1m2 is negative or positive. The poles at the ends of an infinitely thin uniform magnet, or magnetic filament, would act as definite centres of force. An actual magnet may generally be regarded as a bundle of magnetic filaments, and those portions of the surface of the magnet where the filaments terminate, and so-called “free magnetism” appears, may be conveniently called poles or polar regions. A more precise definition is the following: When the magnet is placed in a uniform field, the parallel forces acting on the positive poles of the constituent filaments, whether the filaments terminate outside the magnet or inside, have a resultant, equal to the sum of the forces and parallel to their direction, acting at a certain point N. The point N, which is the centre of the parallel forces, is called the north or positive pole of the magnet. Similarly, the forces acting in the opposite direction on the negative poles of the filaments have a resultant at another point S, which is called the south or negative pole. The opposite and parallel forces acting on the poles are always equal, a fact which is sometimes expressed by the statement that the total magnetism of a magnet is zero. The line joining the two poles is called the axis of the magnet.
Magnetic Field.—Any space at every point of which there is a finite magnetic force is called a field of magnetic force, or a magnetic field. The strength or intensity of a magnetic field at any point is measured by the force in dynes which a unit pole will experience when placed at that point, the direction of the field being the direction in which a positive pole is urged. The field-strength at any point is also called the magnetic force at that point; it is denoted by H, or, when it is desired to draw attention to the fact that it is a vector quantity, by the block letter H, or the German character H. Magnetic force is sometimes, and perhaps more suitably, termed magnetic intensity; it corresponds to the intensity of gravity g in the theory of heavy bodies (see Maxwell, Electricity and Magnetism, § 12 and § 68, footnote). A line of force is a line drawn through a magnetic field in the direction of the force at each point through which it passes. A uniform magnetic field is one in which H has everywhere the same value and the same direction, the lines of force being, therefore, straight and parallel. A magnetic field is generally due either to a conductor carrying an electric current or to the poles of a magnet. The magnetic field due to a long straight wire in which a current of electricity is flowing is at every point at right angles to the plane passing through it and through the wire; its strength at any point distant r centimetres from the wire is
| H＝2i/r, | (2) |
i being the current in C.G.S. units.[3] The lines of force are evidently circles concentric with the wire and at right angles to it; their direction is related to that of the current in the same manner as the rotation of a corkscrew is related to its thrust. The field at the centre of a circular conductor of radius r through which current is passing is
| H＝2πi/r, | (3) |
the direction of the force being along the axis and related to the direction of the current as the thrust of a corkscrew to its rotation. The field strength in the interior of a long uniformly wound coil containing n turns of wire and having a length of l centimetres is (except near the ends)
| H＝4πin / l. | (4) |
In the middle portion of the coil the strength of the field is very nearly uniform, but towards the end it diminishes, and at the ends is reduced to one-half. The direction of the force is parallel to the axis of the coil, and related to the direction of the current as the thrust of a corkscrew to its rotation. If the coil has the form of a ring of mean radius r, the length will be 2πr, and the field inside the coil may be expressed as
| H＝2ni/r. | (5) |
The uniformity of the field is not in this case disturbed by the influence of ends, but its strength at any point varies inversely as the distance from the axis of the ring. When therefore sensible uniformity is desired, the radius of the ring should be large in relation to that of the convolutions, or the ring should have the form of a short cylinder with thin walls. The strongest magnetic fields employed for experimental purposes are obtained by the use of electromagnets. For many experiments the field due to the earth’s magnetism is sufficient; this is practically quite uniform throughout considerable spaces, but its total intensity is less than half a unit.
Magnetic Moment and Magnetization.—The moment, M, M or M, of a uniformly and longitudinally magnetized bar-magnet is the product of its length into the strength of one of its poles; it is the moment of the couple acting on the magnet when placed in a field of unit intensity with its axis perpendicular to the direction of the field. If l is the length of the magnet, M＝ml. The action of a magnet at a distance which is great compared with the length of the magnet depends solely upon its moment; so also does the action which the magnet experiences when placed in a uniform field. The moment of a small magnet may be resolved like a force. The intensity of magnetization, or, more shortly, the magnetization of a uniformly magnetized body is defined as the magnetic moment per unit of volume, and is denoted by I, I, or I. Hence
I＝M/v＝ml/v＝m/a,
v being the volume and a the sectional area. If the magnet is not uniform, the magnetization at any point is the ratio of the moment of an element of volume at that point to the volume itself, or I＝m.ds/dv. where ds is the length of the element. The direction of the magnetization is that of the magnetic axis of the element; in isotropic substances it coincides with the direction of the magnetic force at the point. If the direction of the magnetization at the surface of a magnet makes
- ↑ For the relations between magnetism and light see Magneto-Optics.
- ↑ Clerk Maxwell employed German capitals to denote vector quantities. J. A. Fleming first recommended the use of blockletters as being more convenient both to printers and readers.
- ↑ The C.G.S. unit of current＝10 amperes.
