Question about magnets

[Onceler]

How do they know that magnetism goes out of the north pole and into the south pole?

 

[Paperdoc]

"They" don't. It is an arbitrary convention that North is the direction the arrow points. Someone had to make a choice - the arrow has to point either North or South. The first ones to get into the act were people in Europe in the Northern Hemisphere, so guess how it went!

 

[allenk09]

 

[Mark R]

It's convention. The flux needs a direction, and it's just convention that the direction of flux is from the North-seeking pole of a magnet to the South-seeking pole.

Same as electric current - by convention, electric current flows from a positive
to negative; even though, in most cases, teh current is carried by electrons which move in the opposite direction.

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

Damn you Ben Franklin!

 

[irishScott]

 

[C1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qFGiLr78pc&feature=player_embedded

 

[exdeath]

LMAO Closed system is closed.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i like that one

 

[wuliheron]

How do they know that magnetism goes out of the north pole and into the south pole?

Never learned about the birds and the bees I guess.:whiste:

 

[DrPizza]

Damn you Ben Franklin!

I think you're referring to the fact that a compass, placed in a magnetic field points from North to South in that magnetic field, but for the Earth, points toward the magnetic North pole. Regardless of what convention was used, this has to be the case.

It was observed that when you magnetized, for example, a needle, one end of the needle pointed toward Earth's North pole (somewhat toward the geographic North pole; close enough for them back then.) More appropriately then, that end of the magnet is the "North seeking pole." Earth's North Pole is, because opposites attract, a South seeking pole.

That's the way it works.

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

Actually, I was referring to the sign convention he started for the electric charge.

 

[C1]

Ya, the only way I can remember it is that "negative" is the SOURCE of negative charge electrons. (Sort of like "dont dont" do that => do it.)