Abstract / Description of output
Motivated by an observation of a popular children's toy, I investigate the behavior of a bar magnet with a steel ball bearing held on one of its poles as it approaches another bar magnet. Mapping the problem onto electrostatics, I give an explanation of my observations based on the behavior of point charges near an isolated, uncharged sphere. This magnetic analog offers a simple demonstration of the familiar "method of images" in electrostatics. (C) 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 943-947 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | American Journal of Physics |
Volume | 71 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2003 |