Teaching Minds-On Experiments on Electromagnetism in Secondary Schools
Permanent magnets
The deviation of a compass needle brought close to a magnet
We
place a sheet of what such that its smaller end points in the same
direction as a compass needle placed on top of it. We place a
cylindrical magnet at a fair distance from the needle of the compass,
so that it remains perpendicular to the axis of the magnet. We bring
the compass closer to the magnet. We record the direction of the
compass needle at different distances from the magnet: it forms an
angle which becomes more acute as it approaches the magnet. The
projection of this direction along the direction of approach represents
the component of the magnetic field caused by the magnet (Bm), with
respect to the fixed component of the Earth’s magnetic field (Bt). If
we trace a parallel line along the direction of approach, we measure Bm
in arbitrary units, measuring the length of the projection upon this
from the direction of the needle. Bm grows rapidly as the distance (d)
diminishes between the compass and the magnet. We find that Bm*d3=
const. This type of dependence we call “dipole” one: clearly, the
magnet used has two poles (north and south), so it is a di-pole.
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