Category: 06. Magnetism

Magnetism plays an important role in Electrical and Electronic Engineering because without it components such as relays, solenoids, inductors, chokes, coils, loudspeakers, motors, generators, transformers, and electricity meters would not work! Electromagnetism is the relationship between electricity and magnetism, and it’s the foundation of electric motors, as well as generators and transformers. Michael Faraday discovered…

Magnets strongly attract objects that contain iron, steel, nickel, or cobalt. Magnets also attract or repel (push away) other hard magnets. This happens because every magnet has two opposite poles, or ends: a north pole and a south pole. North poles attract the south poles of other magnets, but they repel other north poles. Likewise, south…

Diamagnetism This appears in all materials. Diamagnetism is the inclination for a material to oppose an applied magnetic field, therefore repelling it. However, in a material with paramagnetic properties (that is, with a tendency to enhance an external magnetic field), the paramagnetic behaviour dominates. Diamagnetic behaviour is observed only in a purely diamagnetic material, such as…

Because of the way their electrons are arranged, the metals iron, steel, nickel, and cobalt make good magnets. Once these metals become magnets, they can stay magnets forever. Then they are called hard magnets. But these metals and others can also act like magnets temporarily, after they have been near a hard magnet. Then they are…

First, let’s get into the history of magnetism and how it appeared in the ancient world. Magnetism was first discovered when people noticed that lodestones, naturally magnetized pieces of the mineral magnetite, could attract iron. The word magnet comes from the Greek term magnētis lithos, or the Magnesian stone, lodestone. A lodestone is a naturally…

People have known for a long time that a certain type of rock, called lodestone, is a natural magnet. When scientists learned why that is, they also learned how to make other metals into magnets. Magnetism happens when tiny particles called electrons behave in a certain way. All objects in the universe are made up…

A magnet is a rock or a piece of metal that can pull certain types of metal toward itself. The force of magnets, called magnetism, is a basic force of nature, like electricity and gravity. Magnetism works over a distance. This means that a magnet does not have to be touching an object to pull…