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Grade 10 Physics Notes - Unit 4, Part I: Magnetism

This document provides an overview of magnetism and magnetic fields. It discusses that magnetism is an ancient phenomenon experienced daily and is a type of non-contact force. Magnetic fields originate from magnetic poles (north and south) and can be visualized using field lines. The Earth itself acts as a large magnet, with its south magnetic pole located near the geographic North Pole. Various objects like wires carrying electric currents can also generate magnetic fields according to the Right Hand Rule.

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Aaron Kebede
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1K views4 pages

Grade 10 Physics Notes - Unit 4, Part I: Magnetism

This document provides an overview of magnetism and magnetic fields. It discusses that magnetism is an ancient phenomenon experienced daily and is a type of non-contact force. Magnetic fields originate from magnetic poles (north and south) and can be visualized using field lines. The Earth itself acts as a large magnet, with its south magnetic pole located near the geographic North Pole. Various objects like wires carrying electric currents can also generate magnetic fields according to the Right Hand Rule.

Uploaded by

Aaron Kebede
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Grade 10 Physics Notes - Unit 4, Part I

Aaron G. Kebede
April, 2022

Magnetism
Magnetism is an important phenomenon that we experience almost everyday.
It is also one of the most ancient historical perceptions in physics and was dis-
covered early on in history.

Force Fields
Early on in dynamics, we have seen that we can categorize forces as being con-
tact or non-contact based on the need of contact in order for the force to be
experienced. Non-contact forces act over distance and their pattern of action is
determined by a force field - a region in which the non-contact force is exerted
and felt.

Common examples of non-contact forces include gravitation, magnetic force,


and electric force. One thing common about them all? They all act over space
and don’t need contact in order to be felt.

Magnetic Fields
Magnetic Fields are no different from other non-contact forces in that they act
over a distance. We have seen in Electrostatics that the Coulomb Force acts on
the electric field. Electric Field is projected radially outwards from a positive
charge and radially inwards in a negative charge. The source of any magnetic
field possesses two poles, a north pole and a south pole. The poles received
their names because of the way a magnet, such as that in a compass, behaves
in the presence of the Earth’s magnetic field when suspended freely.
As with positive charges, magnetic field lines come out of the north pole. Similar
to negative charges, magnetic field lines go inside the south pole of a magnet. If
we draw the magnetic field lines across a bar magnet, we can see the following
pattern.

1
The magnetic field lines outside a magnet start from the North Pole and go
into the South, while inside the magnet it goes from the South to the North
pole. It is a universal characteristic of all magnets that like poles repel and
unlike poles attract, however, it is impossible to separate a magnetic pole on its
own.

Earth’s Magnetic Field


Earth acts like a very large bar magnet with its south-seeking pole near the
geographic North Pole. That is why the north pole of your compass is attracted
toward the geographic north pole of Earth—because the magnetic pole that is
near the geographic North Pole is actually a south magnetic pole.

2
As we have seen earlier, we can not separate the poles of a magnet. North
and south poles always occur in pairs. Attempts to separate them will result
in more pairs of poles. If we continue to split the magnet, we will eventually
get down to an atom with a north pole and a south pole—these, too, cannot
be separated. The fact that magnetic poles always occur in pairs of north and
south is true from the very large scale—for example, sunspots always occur in
pairs that are north and south magnetic poles—all the way down to the very
small scale. Magnetic atoms have both a north pole and a south pole, as do
many types of subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons, and neutrons.

Magnetic Field, Force and Sources


We have said earlier that magnetic force is a non-contact force and that it acts
over a field. To visualize a magnetic field, we use hypothetical field lines that
show how the magnetic force acts over the space. Here is an example of a mag-
netic field acting on iron fillings.

3
There are multiple sources of magnetic field. A straight current carrying wire
is one prime example of a source of magnetic field. The magnetic field gen-
erated by a straight current carrying wire is determined by the Right Hand
Rule. The basic idea in this rule is to align your thumb with the direction of
current(I). Then, the direction in which the rest of your fingers curl show the
direction of the magnetic field(B).

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