I never really took these kinds of physics classes in high school. What science classes I did have were like standard biology/geology classes, or specifically related to other classes that also didn’t explain this.
It’s now years later, I’m currently trying to understand electronics today, and have project ideas that I want to do but just don’t know where to even begin. Ive been reading textbooks and watching videos that have helped me to better understand several concepts on a fundamental level. I get that current induces a magnetic field, and vice versa. But…
What I still don’t understand is how and why that magnetic field exists in the first place. How is it possible that an item’s atoms and charges and electrons and stuff are affected at all by something else, a completely separate item, that isn’t even touching it? How is it that a magnet can physically repel other magnets/materials? How can magnetic fields exist at all, why is it a real thing? It might as well be magic to me, and trying to think about it or find answers makes me think everybody else is just handwaving it away like “it just does, don’t try to understand it”.
Ive tried to look at previous posts and questions, but I don’t see this specific question being asked or answered.
In: Physics
For some context before we get to magnetism, we note that *electrostatic* cling means we walk out of the house in the morning with socks stuck on the back of our sweater. So everyday phenomena show how opposite *electric charges* will attract based on *electrostatic* forces. That isn’t magnetism, but ….
Next, toying around with magnets and wires will show that magnetism and electric phenomena arise from one fundamental force of nature, called “electromagnetism.”
So when we say “magnetism” we’re really saying that the “magnetic” aspect of the electromagnetic force is the aspect that’s highlighted, in that situation.
Any *moving* electric charge will have an associated magnetic field. That magnetic field affects the forces experienced by all other electric charges.
Separately, the individual particles of matter have an *intrinsic* property referred to as “spin”. It doesn’t mean the particles are actually spinning — it’s an intrinsic property, which shows up in the math of relativistic quantum mechanics. Knowing that such an intrinsic property exists in electrons — that’s a key puzzle piece for a mental picture, to explain a refrigerator magnet. It’s all about how the fundamental forces combine to achieve a net effect.
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