FAQ
Q:
Does the theory tell you what will happen when you cut a magnet in half?
A:
Yes, the theory tells us that we shall just find new poles. Isn’t that wonderful? However it is no credit to our theory whatever. Our theory has just given us back the story we put into it. We found out that by experiment ourselves and used it as a basis for building our theory.
Q:
Suppose you have a bar magnet with poles at the very ends, just on the faces. What is likely to happen to those poles?
A:
Like poles at an end push each other away so we should expect to find the pole regions of a bar magnet spreading from the ends round the corners to the last part of the length. This agrees well enough with what one sees. It suggests the usefulness of keepers holding two magnets of opposite polarity close together to provide a circle of magnetism. You could also ask about heating and hammering and demonstrate some of these effects. However modern magnetic materials have become so good that they withstand rough handling.