PHYSICS PROJECT

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MAGNETISM

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my teacher Dr. Tara Ramachandran Pillai who gave me
this opportunity to work on this project. I got to learn a lot from this project
about “Magnetism”. I would also like to thank our school principal Dr. James T.
Joseph.
At last, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my parents because
without their help this project would not have been successful. Finally, I would
like to thank my dear friends who have been with me all the time.

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CONTENTS

 Introduction…………………………………………..Pg:5
 History of Magnetism………………………………...Pg:6-7
 Cause of Magnetism………………………………….Pg:8
 Types of Magnetism………………………………….Pg:9
 Magnetic Field………………………………………..Pg:10
 Magnetic Field Lines…………………………………Pg:11
 Measurement of Magnetic Field……………………...Pg:12
 Earth’s Magnetic Field………………………………..Pg:13
 Components of Earth’s Magnetic Field……………….Pg:14
 Applications of Magnetic Field……………………….Pg:15
 Conclusion…………………………………………….Pg:16
 Bibliography…………………………………………..Pg:17

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INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS MAGNETISM?
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic
field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive
phenomenon in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of
elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, which acts on other currents
and magnetic moments. Magnetism is one aspect of the combined phenomenon
of electromagnetism. The most familiar effects occur
in ferromagnetic materials, which are strongly attracted by magnetic fields and
can be magnetized to become permanent magnets, producing magnetic fields
themselves. Demagnetizing a magnet is also possible. Only a few substances are
ferromagnetic; the most common ones are iron, cobalt and nickel and their
alloys. The rare-earth metals neodymium and samarium are less common
examples. The prefix ferro- refers to iron, because permanent magnetism was
first observed in lodestone, a form of natural iron ore called magnetite, Fe3O4.

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HISTORY OF MAGNETISM
According to Greek legend, magnetism was first discovered by a shepherd
named Megnes, who lived in Megnesia, Greece. Megnes was herding his sheep
through the mountains. Suddenly he noticed the ferrule of his stick and nails in
his sandals got stuck to a rock. The iron in his stick and nails had become
attracted to the magnetic rock. The stone was named magnetite, after the name
of the shepherd or the country it was found in. It was also known as a loadstone
because of its attractive properties.

Magnetite is one of the three natural occurring oxides of iron. It gets attracted
to magnets and can be easily magnetized to form a permanent magnet. Naturally
magnetized pieces of magnetite are called loadstone.

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People from Ancient Egypt started using magnets to play tricks, by making
objects of worship float in mid-air by proper positioning of magnets. Legends
have it, the emperor from China used magnets to save his palace by constructing
gates made of loadstone. The amours made of metal got attracted to the
magnetic gates and prevented them from going any further.

In his book, De Magnete (1600), scientist William Gilbert has mentioned

techniques of artificially making magnets from steel. In 1820, the concept of
electromagnetism was discovered by Hans Christian Orsted, who observed a
deflection in the compass needle from the magnetic north when the electric
current from the battery he was powering his set up with was switched on and
off.

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CAUSE OF MAGNETISM
Magnetism arises from two types of motions of electrons in atoms-one is the
motion of the electrons in an orbit around the nucleus, similar to the motion of
the planets in our solar system around the sun, and the other is the spin of the
electrons around its axis, analogous to the rotation of the Earth about its own
axis. The orbital and the spin motion independently impart a magnetic moment
on each electron causing each of them to behave as a tiny magnet. The magnetic
moment of a magnet is defined by the rotational force experienced by it in a
magnetic field of unit strength acting perpendicular to its magnetic axis.
In a large fraction of the elements, the magnetic moment of the electrons cancel
out because of the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that each electronic
orbit can be occupied by only two electrons of opposite spin. However, a
number of so-called transition metal atoms, such as iron, cobalt, and nickel,
have magnetic moments that are not cancelled; these elements are, therefore,
common examples of magnetic materials. In these transition metal elements the
magnetic moment arises only from the spin of the electrons.
In the rare earth elements (that begin with lanthanum in the sixth row of the
Periodic Table of Elements), however, the effect of the orbital motion of the
electrons is not cancelled, and hence both spin and orbital motion contribute to
the magnetic moment. Examples of some magnetic rare earth elements are:
cerium, neodymium, samarium, and europium. In addition to metals and alloys
of transition and rare earth elements, magnetic moments are also observed in a
wide variety of chemical compounds involving these elements. Among the
common magnetic compounds are the metal oxides, which are chemically
bonded compositions of metals with oxygen.

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TYPES OF MAGNETISM

Five basic types of magnetism have been observed and classified on the basis of
the magnetic behavior of materials in response to magnetic fields at different
temperatures. These types of magnetism are: ferromagnetism, ferrimagnetism,
antiferromagnetism, paramagnetism, and diamagnetism.
Ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism occur when the magnetic moments in a
magnetic material line up spontaneously at a temperature below the so-called
Curie temperature, to produce net magnetization.
In a ferromagnet, magnetic moments of equal magnitude arrange themselves
in parallel to each other.
In a ferrimagnet, on the other hand, the moments are unequal in magnitude and
order in an antiparallelarrangement.
Paramagnetism is a weak form of magnetism observed in substances which
display a positive response to an applied magnetic field. Paramagnetism is
observed, for example, in atoms and molecules with an odd number of
electrons, since here the net magnetic moment cannot be zero.
Diamagnetism is associated with materials that have a negative magnetic
susceptibility. It occurs in nonmagnetic substances like graphite, copper, silver
and gold.

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MAGNETIC FIELD
Magnetic field is a vector field in the neighbourhood of a magnet, electric
current, or changing electric field, in which magnetic forces are observable.
Magnetic fields such as that of Earth cause magnetic compass needles and other
permanent magnets to line up in the direction of the field. Magnetic
fields force moving electrically charged particles in a circular or helical path.
This force—exerted on electric currents in wires in a magnetic field—underlies
the operation of electric motors.
Around a permanent magnet or a wire carrying a steady electric current in one
direction, the magnetic field is stationary and referred to as a magnetostatic
field. At any given point its magnitude and direction remain the same. Around
an alternating current or a fluctuating direct current, the magnetic field is
continuously changing its magnitude and direction.

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MAGNETIC FIELD LINES

Magnetic fields may be represented by continuous lines of force or magnetic

flux that emerge from north-seeking magnetic poles and enter south-seeking
magnetic poles. The density of the lines indicates the magnitude of the magnetic
field. At the poles of a magnet, for example, where the magnetic field is strong,
the field lines are crowded together, or more dense. Farther away, where the
magnetic field is weak, they fan out, becoming less dense. A uniform magnetic
field is represented by equally spaced parallel straight lines. The direction of
the flux is the direction in which the north-seeking pole of a small magnet
points. The lines of flux are continuous, forming closed loops. For a bar magnet,
they emerge from the north-seeking pole, fan out and around, enter the magnet
at the south-seeking pole, and continue through the magnet to the north pole,
where they again emerge. The SI unit for magnetic flux is the weber. The
number of webers is a measure of the total number of field lines that cross a
given area.

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MEASUREMENT OF MAGNETIC
FIELD

The measurement of the magnetic field involves measuring its strength and
direction. The measurement is necessary because every magnetic field is
different from each other. Magnetic field intensity is either small and weak
while some are very strong and large. If we look at the earth’s magnetic field it
is weak but large.

Nonetheless, the term magnetic field represents two unique but related fields
which are usually denoted by the symbols H and B. H represents the magnetic
field strength and is measured in the SI unit of ampere per meter. Meanwhile, B
represents magnetic flux density and is measured in tesla

The magnetic field or flux density is measured in metric units of a gauss (G)

and the corresponding international system unit of a tesla (T). The magnetic
field strength is measured in metric units of oersteds (Oe) and international units
of amperes per meter (A/m). Instruments called gaussmeters and magnetometers
are used to measure the magnitude of magnetic fields.

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EARTH’S MAGNETIC
FIELD

Earth’s magnetic field is also referred to as the geomagnetic field. The earth’s
magnetic field extends millions of kilometers into outer space and looks very
much like a bar magnet. The earth’s south magnetic pole is actually near the
North Pole and the magnetic north pole is in Antarctica! This is why a
compass magnet’s north pole actually points north (north and south poles
attract). The Earth’s magnetic field extends far and wide but is very weak in
terms of field strength. A mere 40,000 nT compared to a refrigerator magnet
which has a strength of 10. The Earth’s magnetic field extends far and wide but
is very weak in terms of field strength.
The earth gets its own magnetic field lines because of the presence of the
metallic fluids that are present at the outer core as well as in the inner core. The
outer core consists of molten iron, while the inner core has the solidified
elements. This is called the Dynamo Effect.
The earth’s magnetic poles are not aligned to the actual geographic north and
south poles. Instead, the magnetic south pole is in Canada while the magnetic
north pole lies in Antarctica. The magnetic poles are inclined by about 10
degrees to the earth’s rotational axis. So, all this time your compass was really
pointing to Canada, not the true North.

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COMPONENTS OF EARTH’S
MAGNETIC FIELD
There are three components that are responsible for the magnitude as well as the
direction of the earth’s magnetic field:

 Magnetic declination
 Magnetic inclination or the angle of dip
 Horizontal component of the earth’s magnetic field

Magnetic Declination
The magnetic declination is defined as the angle between the true north and the
magnetic north. On the horizontal plane, the true north is never at a constant
position and keeps varying depending upon the position on the earth’s surface
and time.
Magnetic Inclination
The magnetic inclination is also known as the angle of dip. It is the angle made
by the horizontal plane on the earth’s surface. At the magnetic equator, the
angle of dip is 0° and at the magnetic poles, the angle of dip is 90°.

Horizontal Component of the Earth’s Magnetic Field

There are two components to explain the intensity of the earth’s magnetic field:

 Horizontal component (H)

 Vertical component (v)

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APPLICATIONS OF
MAGNETIC FIELD
 Magnets are used inside TVs, Sound speakers and radios. The small coil
of wire and a magnet inside a speaker transforms the electronic signal to
sound vibrations.
 Magnets are used inside a generator to transform mechanical energy
to electrical energy where there are other kinds of motors which use
magnets to change electrical energy to mechanical energy.
 Electrically charged magnets can help cranes to move large metal pieces.
 Magnets are used in filtering machines which separates metallic ores
from crushed rocks.
 It is also used in food processing industries for separating small metallic
pieces from grains etc.
 Magnets are used in MRI machines which are used to create an image of
the bone structure, organs, and tissues. Even magnets are used to cure
cancer.
 At home, you use magnets when you stick a paper on the refrigerator in
order to remember something. Attaching a magnetic bottle opener to the
fridge can come in handy.
 We often use pocket a compass to find out directions when we are on a
trek. The pocket compass uses a magnetic needle to point north.
 The dark strip on the back of debit and credit cards is of magnetic nature
and are used to store data just like computers’ hard drives.
 Magnets can help collect all the nails which are scattered on the ground
after a repair job.

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CONCLUSION

Magnets have been proving its worth every day with its incredible function by
making the most strenuous tasks easier. With the various uses of magnets in
daily life, we can do heavy lifting which is not humanly possible to do every
day. Magnets play an important role in various devices which can be a small toy
or a heavy 100-ton device to pick up heavy metals. Magnets are essential in
today’s electronic technology. Magnets are useful, fun and even a little
mysterious–they can repel as well as attract.

The science of magnetism is tied to the modern science of electricity, but has
been recognized for thousands of years. Therefore, magnetism is very important
because we use it to create electrical energy and for many more great purposes.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES:

 www.wikipedia.com
 www.byjus.com

BOOKS:

 NOOTAN ISC Physics Class XII

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