dolimitless - 21-6-2009 at 14:38
I am having trouble understanding in a visual manner how electric and magnetic fields look like. I think it is a problem oin chemistry where
information is simply written down to be regurgitated with students not understanding the reason as it why its happening. Does this macroscopic
potrait show how magnetic and electic fields work, or am I wrong?
Consider a stone thrown into a pond. If you observe the stone, you would see that there are two separate components. One is the downward force of the
stone when it travels to the water. (On earth, objects are attracted downward by gravity. Charged particles can be attracted in any direction, up
down, side to side, etc. The other component is the distortion of the surface of the water. The stone creates water ripples, and little waves radiate
from all sides from where the stone impacted. In an atom moving, you can understand the downward (or upward) force as the electric field and
distortion of the surface on the side as magnetic field. Of course though, this occurs in a 3 dimensions so it is hard to visualize this.
The Fountain of Discordia - 22-6-2009 at 18:47
Just get some decent magnets and a CRT telivision from ebay. It'll let you view the Magnetic fields visually. Using a ballon charged with static
electricity from your hair will allow you to view electric fields.