物理学专业英语A5.ppt

A5 Magnets and currents Magnets and fields Strongly magnetic materials, such as iron and steel, are called ferromagnetic materials. They feel forces from other magnets and can be made into magnets. The forces from a magnet seem to come from magnetic poles near its ends. In reality, every particle in a magnet acts like a tiny magnet. The two poles are the combined effect of all these tiny magnets lined up. A5 Magnets and currents The Earth is a weak magnet. As a result, a freely-suspended bar magnet turns until it ends are pointing roughly north-south - which is how the two types of pole got their names. However, the north end of the Earth is, magnetically, a south pole because it attracts the north pole of a magnet. A5 Magnets and currents The region around a magnet where magnetic forces act is sometimes called a magnetic field. However, see B17 for a more precise definition of a magnetic field. In diagrams, a magnetic field is represented by field lines. The stronger the field, the closer the lines. The direction of the field is the direction in which a free N pole would move (though in reality, magnetic poles always exist in pairs). A5 Magnets and currents When a strongly magnetic material, such as iron or steel, is placed in a magnetic field, it becomes magnetized, as shown above. This is called induced magnetism. A magnet attracts iron or steel because the direction of the induced magnetism means that two unlike poles are close together. When a magnetic field is removed, iron quickly loses its magnetism, but steel becomes permanently magnetized. A5 Magnets and currents Magnetic fields from currents A current has a magnetic field around it. The greater the current, the stronger the field. The field round a current-carrying wire is shown on the right. The field direction is given by Maxwells screw rule. Imagine a screw moving in the conventional direction. The field turns the same way as the screw. A5 Magnets and currents The field round a current-carrying coil (b