A student wants to investigate whether breaking a magnet can ever create an isolated…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · Magnetism and Matter · Magnetism and Matter
Problem
A student wants to investigate whether breaking a magnet can ever create an isolated magnetic pole. The student begins with a rectangular bar magnet and plans to fracture it twice, producing three fragments. The investigation will use iron-filing maps and a small compass to probe the field.
(a) Propose a detailed experimental procedure the student could follow to map the magnetic field around each individual fragment and around the assembly of all three fragments placed with small gaps between them.
(b) Predict and justify the pattern of compass deflections the student should observe near the free ends of the fragments and near the internal fracture surfaces.
(c) Explain how the experimental observations would allow the student to rule out the creation of an isolated magnetic monopole at any stage of the breaking process.
(d) Suppose that, contrary to expectation, the student did observe field lines radiating outward from a single point on one fragment with no return path. Discuss at least two physical implications such an observation would have for current theories of magnetism.