On the various forces of nature and their relations to each otherFaraday, Michael
Science
On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other
Faraday, Michael
Physics
I want you now to observe, that although I have shewn you in these
magnets that this double power becomes evident principally at the
extremities, yet the _whole_ of the magnet is concerned in giving the
power. That will at first seem rather strange; and I must therefore
shew you an experiment to prove that this is not an accidental matter,
but that the whole of the mass is really concerned in this force,
just as in falling the whole of the mass is acted upon by the force
of gravitation. I have here (fig. 40) a steel bar, and I am going to
make it a magnet, by rubbing it on the large magnet (fig. 39). I have
now made the two ends magnetic in opposite ways. I do not at present
know one from the other, but we can soon find out. You see when I bring
it near our magnetic needle (fig. 38) one end repels and the other
attracts; and the middle will neither attract nor repel--it _cannot_,
because it is _half-way between the two ends_. But now, if I break
out that piece (_n s_), and then examine it--see how strongly one end
(_n_) pulls at this end (S, fig. 38), and how it repels the other end
(N). And so it can be shewn that every part of the magnet contains this
power of attraction and repulsion, but that the power is only rendered
evident at the end of the mass. You will understand all this in a
little while; but what you have now to consider is, that every part
of this steel is in itself a magnet. Here is a little fragment which
I have broken out of the very centre of the bar, and you will still
see that one end is attractive and the other is repulsive. Now, is not
this power a most wonderful thing? and very strange the means of taking
it from one substance and bringing it to other matters? I cannot make
a piece of iron or anything else heavier or lighter than it is. Its
cohesive power it must and does have; but, as you have seen by these
experiments, we can add or subtract this power of magnetism, and almost
do as we like with it.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.]
[Illustration: Fig. 41.]
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