I suppose it is because the things we use to visualize the magnetic field interact with it, and then each other, to clump together like iron filings on a piece of paper–but what about the aurora borealis/australis? So are the lines of force an artifact of visualization?
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The iron filings line up because they are ferromagnetic.
The filing creates a weak magnetic field when there is no external magnetic field. When you put them in a magnetic field all the part of a single iron filing line up and they create a stronger magnetic field. The filing are themself small magnets.
So they clump together in line because of the magnetic interaction between the filing and the larger magnetic file. So when the filing is there you do ger stronger magnetic field in line with where the filing is.
If the iron filing was not there and you did measure the magnetic file there will not be lined with stronger magnetic,
The way you usually draw the field lines is so it is the distance between them that show hos strong the field is. Because you can draw any number of lines you like regardless of how strong the field is you can only see the relative strength,h not the absolute strength.
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