ElectromagnetismMagnets

Magnetism can cause forces to act without any contact. By understanding how permanent magnets and electromagnets work, we can describe and explain their uses in the world around us.

Part ofPhysicsRevise: Electricity

Magnets

  • Magnets have two poles called North and South.
  • Similar (like) magnetic poles repel. Unlike magnetic poles attract. A magnet attracts a piece of iron. The most important of the two properties of and repulsion is . The only way to tell if an object is magnetised is to see if it repels another magnetised object.
  • The strength and direction of a magnetic field is represented by magnetic field lines. Field lines by convention go from North to South. A magnetic field is three-dimensional, although this is not often seen on a drawing of magnetic field lines.
The strength and direction of a magnetic field is represented by magnetic field lines