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Name: laura
Status: student
Age: 13
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
Can a magnet have one pole and only one pole?

Replies:
No person has ever found a magnet with only one pole. The reason this has never happened is due to the source of magnetic fields: moving electric charges. When electric charges (e.g. electrons) move in circles, they produce a magnetic field. In a piece of iron, it is very easy to line up these circles, getting all the little magnets to work together as one big magnet.

For each of these circles, one side is the north pole and one side is the south pole. Since each circle has two sides, each circle has a north and a south pole. Even the smallest possible magnets (spinning electrons) have a north and a south pole.

Kenneth Mellendorf


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