Bar Magnet Diagram

Neodymium Magnets 05/07/2020

bar magnet diagram

A gallery of magnetic fields

Experiments with magnets and our surroundings

This page has several cool diagrams of magnetic fields. Studying these help give you a feel for how magnets actually interact with one another and with other objects. You will see that the fields can bend and move, and can even pop out of a magnet at places other than what you may expect to be the typical pole areas.

To see field lines and magnetic field strength for specific configurations, check these out:

A Gallery of Magnetic Fields (this will open in a new window)

(This is a fairly large file. If you have dial-up, you may want to skip this, or let it download and save it to your disk for later viewing.)

Here is a link to another software vendor whose program can also show what the magnetic fields inside motors and generators look like as the rotor is turning, in an animation. Check out their Products section, especially the Flux2D program. Very cool!

The picture above is from a site that has very interesting graphics and movies on magnetic and electric fields:

This is a drawing of a bar magnet all by itself with an artist's rendition of what the magnetic field lines look like. Again, by convention, the field lines exit the North pole and enter the South pole. Inside the magnet, the field lines travel from the South pole to return to the North pole. The software packages do a much better, and much more accurate job.

You can see these magnetic fields yourself by placing a magnet under a piece of paper and sprinkling iron filings onto the paper. Spray the paper with Krylon to make the iron filings stick in place.

The diagram below is the result of running Maxwell for a magnet of similar geometry. As you can see, this is more accurate and detailed. It also shows that some of the fields actually exits along the sides of the magnet - not everything comes out of the poles! You will also notice that none of the field lines touch each other because they don't want to.

Basically, regarding the poles, North poles are anywhere field lines exit the magnet, and there can be more than one. South poles are anywhere field lines enter the magnet, and there can be more than one. The minimum is one of each. Beyond that, anything goes. You can have five of each, or two North poles and three South poles. The configurations are endless.

bar magnet diagram

Magnetic Field Shapes and Magnetic Field Strength,

A magnetic field is a region in which a particle with magnetic properties experiences a force, and in which a moving charge experiences a force.

Permanent Magnets:

Permanent magnets are common and are made of iron, cobalt, or nickel alloys.

To represent the field around a magnet we use a diagram that needs to obey some rules (or conventions) so that whoever uses it can interpret it correctly.

Here is an example:

The points to note are:

We draw lines to represent magnetic fields.

These lines are called lines of flux.

The arrow shows the direction of the force that a free north pole, for instance, a North pole with no South pole (which doesn't exist!) would feel.

Field direction always goes from North to South.

So pop a magnet at X in the field (see diagram) and it would align itself with its North pole pointing along the arrow.

The spacing between the lines of flux tells you about the strength of the field - as the lines get closer together, the field becomes stronger - for example, near the poles.

Look at this field:

The region in between the poles shows equally spaced parallel lines.

This is called a uniform field.

Field strength remains constant as you move around this area.

Move out from the space between the poles and the field strength reduces.

The lines of flux become further apart.

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