Magnetism is a mysterious force that is used everyday but not fully understood. It can generate magnetic fields through electricity and any object can be magnetized with enough electrical energy. There are four main forces - strong, weak, gravity, and electromagnetic. The electromagnetic force describes interactions between charged particles like protons and electrons. Advances in understanding and controlling magnetic fields and other forces could enable applications like stabilizing buildings in earthquakes and more efficient transportation.

1. Matt Vennekotter<br />Professor Stephanie Anderson Quinn<br />Technical Writing<br />10 April 2011<br />Magnetism<br />Magnetism is a very mysterious force. It is used every day in the world but not completely understood. It’s not something you can see without the use of iron filings and a magnet just like you can’t see the force of gravity without seeing something falling. There is a similarity between all the elementary forces that has yet to be discovered. Electricity can be used to generate a magnetic field in metals which can be used as a force. People believe electricity can’t pass through rubber, but anything made of protons, electrons, and neutrons can let electricity pass through. Any object can be given a magnetic field with enough electrical energy and pressure.<br />A force in physics is described as mass multiplied by acceleration. It’s also sometimes seen as the change in momentum of any object. There are four main forces in the universe and those include the strong force, weak force, gravity force, and electromagnetic force. From what we know about atoms they are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The atom has the nucleus where there is a cluster of protons and neutrons in the nucleus with electrons rotating around at the speed of light. In order to describe the forces it’s easier to think of an object as one single dot, particle, atom, or subatomic particle. The strong force is the strongest force of all. The only way for protons to stay clustered together in the nucleus with neutrons is through this force. The theory is that once particles get infinitely close there’s a force that keeps the protons together. The weak force is as in the word itself a very weak force. It’s basically the force that allows very big atoms to be radioactive and release alpha and beta particles. The weakest force of all is the force of gravity. This force is the force that occurs between any two objects with mass. There is a gravitational force between every object but the only one people can feel is the earth’s force of gravity. The last force is the electromagnetic force. This force is the force between two particles of opposite charge. To describe the force on the smallest scale is the electromagnetic force between protons and electrons. Protons and electrons will repel themselves while protons and electrons are attracted to themselves. There are two ways to describe as an electrically or magnetically. In both of definitions though, the force decreases, as the distance between the particles increase (Nave). <br />A famous movie about forces was Star Wars. All they talked about was using the force in the movies. For a person to use “the force” might seem insane but it is not absolutely fiction. Someday this will be possible, but I do not believe anybody will be able to do it with their mind. Controlling the interactive forces in the universe seems to be complete science fiction, but is probably the dream of everyone. Controlling the forces of the universe means power over a lot of things so now you know how the idea for the movie started. <br />Magnets can be created in several ways. You can electrically charge certain materials and they will start attracting other objects. For example taking a balloon and rubbing it against your head cause your hair to stick to it. Orstead discovered that when a compass is held near a wire carrying an electric current cause the compass to move and was the first to figure out that magnetism and electricity are related. Michael Garaday discovered that a changing magnetic force field can cause an electric current. This idea is used every where now in our electrical system. Steam powers generators and the electricity is then used in motors. Objects can become magnetized by wrapping a wire around any object and passing current through the wire. This idea is used in magnets that want to attract or repel other objects. The most common place it is used in is in metals. There are permanent magnets which stay permanently charged while electromagnets can be turned on and off. Several examples of permanent magnets include ceramic, alnico, injection-molded, flexible, rare earth, samarium cobalt, neodymium iron born, single-molecule, and single-chain magnets (New World Encyclopedia Contributors). <br /> My thinking is that if this can be applied in metals there has to be a way to cause a magnetic force between any other everyday objects through the use of electricity. I believe it is possible to use electricity by some other geometric means other than wrapping a wire around metals in a circle that we can cause random objects to become magnetized. If this was discovered and the forces of objects between one another could be controlled by magnetizing them that would cause the world to become very advanced. <br />Magnetism is used in all sorts of industry. The famous story behind how magnetism was first discovered was that a man named Magnes was taking care of his sheep when the nails in his shoes and the metal tip of his staff got stuck on a rock that was naturally magnetic. Magnets are used in televisions to help make the picture clear. Magnetism has even been used on the human body as a form of therapy to help people while sleeping or using acupuncture as well. Computer discs use magnetic fields to store patterns which can be ruined by any strong magnet. In video tapes iron compounds allow magnetic fields to be stored as a pattern on the tape. The most famous use of magnets is to sort, separate, and sweep metals that respond differently to a magnetic field. Maglev trains in China allow trains to become nearly weightless on the track which allows them to go up 350 miles an hour. It’s also used in almost every plastic card in the magnetic strip on the back of the card (Jezek).<br />The earth’s magnetic field is an odd force as well. It is needed for the survival of life on earth as it protects a lot of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun to hit Earth. The magnetic field is believed to be created by the core of the earth turning inside the earth causing friction and the electricity to power this huge magnetic field. If the whole planet can make a magnetic field, any other object should be able to create a magnetic field. The physics behind magnetism is basically force is equal to the charge of the item multiplied by the velocity of the item and then multiplied by the magnetic field as well (Odenwald).<br />It is my belief that there needs to be more studies in this area. With this technology the world’s forces can be controlled. The implications are endless. Magnetism could be used to support buildings in earthquake prone areas and instead of being thrown around wildly the magnets can be used to balance the building. Vehicles could find a way to follow magnetic paths and travel from the farthest places in the world with the smallest amount of energy used.<br />This is a very hard subject to argue about. Everything about magnetism and other forces is considered theory right now and both sides have very weak arguments. Everything we know about magnetism is used in industry today so the next person to come through with a major breakthrough in magnetism and how the forces of the universe of the universe will be an extremely wealthy person.<br />