Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Magnetic field lines around a "magnetostatic dipole". The magnetic dipole itself is located in the center of the figure, seen from the side, and pointing upward. Any system possessing a net magnetic dipole moment m will produce a dipolar magnetic field (described below) in the space surrounding the system.
A theoretical magnetic point dipole has a magnetic field of exactly the same form as the electric field of an electric point dipole. A very small current-carrying loop is approximately a magnetic point dipole; the magnetic dipole moment of such a loop is the product of the current flowing in the loop and the (vector) area of the loop.
The magnetic field of a current loop. The ring represents the current loop, which goes into the page at the x and comes out at the dot. In classical physics, the magnetic field of a dipole is calculated as the limit of either a current loop or a pair of charges as the source shrinks to a point while keeping the magnetic moment m constant.
The magnetic field of a magnetic dipole is depicted in the figure. From outside, the ideal magnetic dipole is identical to that of an ideal electric dipole of the same strength. Unlike the electric dipole, a magnetic dipole is properly modeled as a current loop having a current I and an area a.
A magnetic field is a vector field, but if it is expressed in Cartesian components X, Y, Z, each component is the derivative of the same scalar function called the magnetic potential. Analyses of the Earth's magnetic field use a modified version of the usual spherical harmonics that differ by a multiplicative factor.
More precisely, the term magnetic moment normally refers to a system's magnetic dipole moment, which produces the first term in the multipole expansion [note 1] of a general magnetic field. Both the torque and force exerted on a magnet by an external magnetic field are proportional to that magnet's magnetic moment.
In classical electromagnetism, magnetization is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic material. Accordingly, physicists and engineers usually define magnetization as the quantity of magnetic moment per unit volume. [1]
The magnetic moment of an object is an intrinsic property and does not change with distance, and thus can be used to measure "how strong" a magnet is. For example, Earth possesses an enormous magnetic moment, however we are very distant from its center and experience only a tiny magnetic flux density (measured in tesla ) on its surface.