the.com/magnetism
the invisible handshake between electrons, all agreeing to point the same way
means The physical force by which certain materials attract or repel each other, arising from the motion and alignment of electric charges; figuratively, a person's powerful, almost irresistible charm.
from From Magnesia, a region in ancient Thessaly (in what is now Greece) whose hills yielded a curious stone — the lodestone — that tugged at iron. Greek speakers called it the 'Magnesian stone,' lithos Magnetis, and the place lent its name to the mystery. The word travelled through Latin magnes and into English by way of the sciences. The same Greek region, by the way, is the likely ancestor of 'manganese' and 'magnesium' too — a single dusty district quietly seeding three corners of the periodic table.
- earth shields us
- its magnetic field deflects deadly solar wind daily
- poles flip
- north and south have swapped hundreds of times
- no monopoles
- cut a magnet, you get two whole magnets
- frog levitation
- strong fields once floated a living frog
- electricity's twin
- a moving magnet generates current, and vice versa
earth's magnetic field — protects planet from solar wind, strength ~25-65 microteslas depending on location
sun's magnetic field — drives solar cycles and coronal mass ejections, reverses every ~11 years
lodestone deposits cornwall — naturally magnetic iron oxide rocks mined for compasses since medieval times