Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Vector]

Two years ago, a substitute teacher implied that they didn't fully know how magnets worked yet.  Of course, this man was rabidly in love with Linus Pauling, so I don't know how much I believe anything he says.

[Bauglir]

-snip-

[Duke 2.0]

Two years ago, a substitute teacher implied that they didn't fully know how magnets worked yet.  Of course, this man was rabidly in love with Linus Pauling, so I don't know how much I believe anything he says.

We may have had similar sources here. I just want to know if this is true or some education rumor.

[Vector]

Two years ago, a substitute teacher implied that they didn't fully know how magnets worked yet.  Of course, this man was rabidly in love with Linus Pauling, so I don't know how much I believe anything he says.

We may have had similar sources here. I just want to know if this is true or some education rumor.

... Same sub?  Seriously?

The guy got his PhD with Linus Pauling, a really famous physicist, and came off like one of the Great People wannabes one sees around.  Quoting Einstein's thought experiments and all that... frankly, he seemed fairly legit, just like something out of the ordinary had happened on the way and he hadn't been able to continue.

On the other hand, there may have been developments since then, so who knows.

We need Virex in here :I

[Duke 2.0]

 Similar meaning both of our sources were dubious, not that the sources were the same. Although I would prefer to have that dude than some of my main professors.

 And yeah, we need some people really into this in here.

[Willfor]

I've had moments like this. Even though I am a Christian, I often thought that scientists have a decent idea of how the fundamentals of our super cool universe work. I was actually fairly surprised when I went to great lengths to describe just how well science MUST know the physics behind lightning. Then I linked to wikipedia, and at the time there was a brief statement that was to the effect of "we don't know jack about how this works." A paraphrase as I am FAIRLY CERTAIN that "we don't know jack" is an exaggeration of the highest order.

I am now very curious about how lightning works.

I am also one of those kinds of people who wishes astronomical probes would either get a lot more funding so they can go faster, or or get a LOT more funding and get a LOT of probes going faster. I am perpetually fascinated by the outer planets (and more importantly the less-than-planetary planets!) and their moons, and science is not progressing fast enough on that front for my tastes. ... This last one has no bearing on the thread, but since I was already kind of rambling anyway ...

[Rilder]

You gotta admit it, it would be hilarious if 90% of the people spouting "Magnets how do they work" as a meme didn't actually know how magnets work. Oh wait this is the internet so they probably don't. 

[Vector]

You gotta admit it, it would be hilarious if 90% of the people spouting "Magnets how do they work" as a meme didn't actually know how magnets work. Oh wait this is the internet so they probably don't. 

... It's a meme?

[Willfor]

You gotta admit it, it would be hilarious if 90% of the people spouting "Magnets how do they work" as a meme didn't actually know how magnets work. Oh wait this is the internet so they probably don't. 

... It's a meme?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P40uaZhIjk

Yeah.

[Renault]

You gotta admit it, it would be hilarious if 90% of the people spouting "Magnets how do they work" as a meme didn't actually know how magnets work. Oh wait this is the internet so they probably don't. 

... It's a meme?

 Its just Insane Clown Posse being their usual weird, vaguely-silly selves, but for some reason people noticed en masse. Im not sure why its news to anyone they have terrible lyrics, but I guess its just the general silliness of the song.

[Sowelu]

I am now very curious about how lightning works.

Dude!  Lightning is AWESOME!

This video itself helps you understand a lot about how it works:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X_7YRVGvtA

My understanding is that, once the event itself starts, it just starts ripping pathways through the sky, ionization paths that charge is able to flow through most freely.  They branch out in a fan-like pattern and they just keep going, kind of like how paper gets easier to tear once you make that first cut.  As soon as one of the tendrils hits ground--kablamm.

I speculate that if it branches out too much before hitting something, it won't have enough charge to keep forcing those ionization paths, so it'll just rumble and not hit anything.  As for why it happens in the first place, Wikipedia oughtta help you there~

[The Worst Gamer]

Magnets: Essentially, they shunt all the electrons over into one side of the object. I don't get why this is so difficult? Or are we going deeper than this?

Lightning: Clouds rub against each other (like rubbing a wool jumper against a balloon) and that applies a charge to one of the clouds. The charge needs to dissipate, and the best way to do this is to ground it in the earth (or, apparently, sometimes in the sky ABOVE the stormclouds). Again, if we're going deeper on a mathematical level, then I'm not sure what the hell you guys want.

Maths: It is a human construct, and it's entirely self-contained. I was explaining to a friend of mine that this is why maths has theorums and every other science has theories. Maths can be proven within itself whilst every other science can only say that THIS IS WHAT WE CAN OBSERVE. Of course, then he started trying to trip me up with things like "evolution" and "photoelectric effect". I just stared him down until he stopped being stupid.

[Vector]

Magnets: Essentially, they shunt all the electrons over into one side of the object. I don't get why this is so difficult? Or are we going deeper than this?

Deeper.

Maths can be proven within itself whilst every other science can only say that THIS IS WHAT WE CAN OBSERVE.

. . . I strongly suggest that you study axiomatization and the history of mathematics a little bit more.  Your thoughts may be correct, but your communication makes it seem that you are somewhat confused.

[Osmosis Jones]

Magnets: Essentially, they shunt all the electrons over into one side of the object. I don't get why this is so difficult? Or are we going deeper than this?

o_0 Wut? That is not how magnets work, at all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Small magnetic moments arise out of a combination of the charge and spin of subatomic particles. I assume everyone here is aware of what electric charge is, at least enough to get the gist?
Spin is another quantum property, and while it does not at actually represent the particle spinning as such, the combination of charge and spin can be thought of to yield a magnetic moment in sort of a similar way a spinning sphere of charge (from Ampere's Law). Although it is a gross oversimplification, it's good enough for a lay discussion.

Spin can arise from both the electrons surrounding an atomic nucleus, and the particles comprising the nucleus itself, though because of the relation that governs the generated moment...

u = g S ^q/_2m

where u is the magnetic moment,
q is the charge, S is the spin
m is the mass, and g is a factor that varies depending on the system

...the moment from the nucleus is far smaller than that of the electrons.

In most atoms, the net electron spins cancel out, due to the manner in which the electron shells are filled (see here), producing diamagnetic and paramagnetic materials (I won't go into these, as colloquially speaking, these are your 'nonmagnetic' materials).
In a very limited number of materials (Iron, cobalt, nickel, and a few rare-earths), the number of parallel spins is such that the net moment is large enough to reach beyond a single atom.

In these cases, clumps of atoms line up into 'domains'. Normally, these domains are aligned such that they cancel each other out, BUT if you apply a strong enough magnetic field, these domains will line up, and the flaws in the actual crystal structure will hold the domains in place once you take the applied field away. Voila, you have a material with a net magnetic field; a.k.a. a (ferro)magnet.

I wrote my honours thesis on non-conventional ways of producing ferromagnetic materials, and everytime I hear that ICP song or the bloody memes it has spawned, I start to froth at the mouth a little.

[Vector]

Thank you.  I'm really glad for the explanation.