magnetism

echo · science forum beginner Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 3

I don't understand magnetism at all, but it is fun to think about.
When you push poles together, and they repel, it feels just like water
pushing back.
When I put an empty glass into a bown of water all the way to the bottom,
and release my grip a bit, the glass is pushed back up. I wonder why? It
doesn't seem like the water had time to get under it.
My first thought was that magnetism is invisible water. So that might
explain the Creationist idea of a vapor canopy. Actually, part of the
magnetic field was changed into water. That is why the earth's magnetic
field is weaker today.
In that case, one would expect dry places to have more magnetism, and
wet places to have less, but that is probably not the case, although the
iron magma of the earth has more.
I am not sure that magnetism is the same as electricity. Maybe they are
just associated.
When you push two like ends of two magnets together, they repel. This
seems odd, because you would expect just the two + or the two - ends to
repel or attract each other. But if it's invisible water, it's like they
form a container.
For some odd reason, when you flip one of the magnets so that opposite
ends face each other, the attract and stick together. Or maybe this is
circular reasoning: because they attract, we say they are of opposite
charge. On the other hand, if magnetisism is not electricity, there is no
charge. This is like water draining out of a drain. Maybe it drains into
another dimension of space or time.
But let's assume oit doesn't drain into another dimension, and that
maybe magnetism is not invisible water. Then when the two ends attract,
where does all the force go that was there when two magnets repelled? When
two magnets attract and stick together, is the magnetic field at their
opposite ends stronger, or does it extend out further? Does the weight of
the two magnets increase, or is there some subtle change in their substance
or nature that can be measured, like change of color?
Even if one could see magnetism with one's eyes, perhaps one still
couldn't understand it. But one might have an idea how to work with it
better, just as if one could see a hypercube.

Astucias (Spain) · science forum beginner Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 5

The magnetism has nothing in common with water; it's a well known
phenomena, and what produces it are the electric currents.

lysdexia · science forum Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 1207

Am I allowed to call ye dumb? Fenomena is plural, your glass is light
and empty, magnetic poles are not + and -, unlike poles attract for
sheer ease of naming consistently, gravity (water falling) can be
distinguished from magnetism (effluvium falling), the force goes into
your arms, their field becomes slightly stronger, their weight slightly
drops, and they are slightly redshifted.

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