Someone told me once that permanent ring magnets have an East and West pole as well as North and South. Presumably this has something to do with the orientation of the steel when magnetized. Does this make sense to anyone? If so, how could the E and W poles of a magnet be determined?
K. Wedley
It sounds to me like someone is pulling your leg.
Just like the Earth, while looking at the North pole the West pole is on your left. ;-)
-- Keith
I thought the geographic north pole was actually the Earth's magnetic south pole. But if you were actually at the "north"pole, you'd have to look down at your feet in any event to see any other pole.
-mpm
Not yet.
No one said anything about being at the North pole.
-- Keith
This only works because it is always midnight at the North pole, and time varies on the EW poles
see here
martin
I know, I was just being a smarty-pants. Like asking which way is east when you're plopped directly on the pole.
Electric fields result from assorted charges (which are the 'poles') and there's only two types of such charge. Magnetic fields result from circulation (curl, actually) and have poles just like our planet does, as the pivot points, or centers of circulation.
Look at the S and you see circulation CW (clockwise), and look at the N and you see circulation CCW around the center. So technically there aren't any E or W poles. Unless you're in an Oz book...
The ring magnets made for motors, however, have usually got multiple poles printed around the ring. I suppose you could name them anything you want.
A coil shaped like stitches-on-a-baseball makes four poles, and the resulting field is actually useful for something (a kind of magnetic bottle). It seems like you SHOULD be able to give all four poles their own names.
"Someone" is blowing smoke up your ass.
Technically, there isn't even a "north" or "south" pole - magnetic lines of force are circles; it's only when there's an intervening permeability mismatch that the "poles" appear.
Cheers! Rich
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