What is the Magnetic Field?

The Magnetic Field is an invisible and physical force that exists everywhere. It is caused by electric currents and is why any metal that touches an electric current becomes magnetized. There are two magnetic poles the North and South, which are opposite of our north and south poles on Earth.

Fig. 1: The south and north poles shown opposite of the Earths pole. The currents flow from each end out and loop together further and further out, depending on the size of the field.

How does the Magnetic Field work?

Magnetic fields vary in strength and size and are measured in Teslas (T). Direction and strength are important parts of any magnetic field. For instance the strength of a refrigerator magnet is very little and its field doesnt extend very far, whereas the magnetic field of the Earth is extremely large and strong enough to extend far into space. Though smaller objects can still have strong fields, for instance have you ever played with the zinging magnets that you throw into the air and they pull together? This is a small but very strong magnetic field. The terms B, referring to the magnetic field, and H, referring to the magnetic fields strength or intensity, are commonly used among engineers and physicists. These terms can be used to determine the Teslas of a particular magnetic field, because magnetic fields are truly just math and physics, though they do get very complicated.

Fig. 2 Above: Examples of what the magnetic field looks like from various sources. Notice that they all are similar, but change with size.

How does it affect our lives?

Magnetic fields are very important in our world today, with so many electronics and technology based products that all revolve around magnetic fields. If the poles were to ever reverse, for instance, none of the technology we have would continue to work, because they are based on the flow of electric currents. Though there are theories that magnetic poles reverse naturally, and that at some point in the future the poles with reverse changing our world. Among the many things that depend on a magnetic field are x-ray machines, cell phones, and compasses. Also, things that happen in nature such as when birds migrate they follow a magnetic field and the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is due to the combination of the magnetic field and solar winds. Its amazing everything that is affected by magnetics and how much we still dont understand about magnetics and magnetic fields. This is only the beginning of how a magnetic field works and what it does (at least what we do understand of it), if you want to read more about it some of the sources I found (listed below) go into more depth including the physics and math. Sources: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/magnetic_field http://www.physics4kids.com/files/elec_magneticfield.html http://www.ua.es/grupo/ocv/magnet/earths_magnetic_field.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field