Below Image 1 shows the arrangement of iron filings on a sheet of paper when positioned above a standard, iron based, magnet.
Image 2 is a textbook graph of the strength in Gauss of the field emitted from a permanent magnet, suggesting that the strength declines to zero at 14 centimeters from the poles.
Image 1
Image 2
To check this authoritative assertion I positioned a strontium ferrite magnet 5 centimeters in length (composed of 90% iron and 9% strontium), South East (135°) at an initial distance of more than 45 centimeters from an orienteering compass, of good quality, which was aligned of course with the Earth’s magnetic field, and in moving it to 43 cm a small deflection of the compass needle was observed.
And when the magnet was moved to a separation of 35 cm from the pivot point of the compass, a clockwise 5° rotation of the needle was observed.
And as this diagram shows when the magnet was then moved progressively nearer to the compass this deflection increased until, at a separation of 11 centimeters, the compass needle came into perfect alignment to that of the magnet.
The graph below this also describes this observed progressive rotation of the needle as the magnet is moved closer, from 0 degrees at a 45 cm separation to 135 degrees at 11 cm. The red dashed lines represent the progression that is indicated by the graph of Image 2, i.e. 0 degrees at 13 cm to 130 degrees at 1 cm.
This is direct and unequivocal evidence that the field emitted by this particular magnet extends in all directions to encompass a nominally spherical volume around the centre point of the magnet, of a diameter of more than 80 centimeters.
It is evident that the strong N-S field of the magnet is acting locally to divert the compass needle away from its alignment to the relatively weak but continuously acting magnetic field generated by the Earth.
Later a stronger neodymium ferrite magnet was obtained (composed of around 65% iron and 30% neodymium) and the experiment was repeated.
The remarkable results of this are shown in the comparative diagram below where the field of this magnet extends to over 100 cm from its poles, thus extending a total field which extends to a diameter of over 2 metres from the centre point of this magnet.
So it is evident that these magnets are observed to extend their magnetic field in all directions through a large volume of atmosphere, in the case of neodymium ferrite magnets to encompass a nominally spherical region of over 2 metres in diameter, a volume of atmosphere of more than 8 cubic metres, as indicated in the comparative diagrams below.
Clearly the magnetic influences of individual iron atoms extend to strongly influence adjacent iron atoms, and the collective influence of many billions of atoms in a piece of magnetised iron results in a cumulative increase in the external magnetic moment generated by a magnet.
It can only be assumed that the field generated by an individual iron atom, as depicted in the diagram below, will extend its local magnetic field externally.
The diagram below depicts this progressively increasing magnetic moment, where each of the depicted atoms are representative of many billions of atoms.
Which gaseous atoms are individually and fractionally influenced by the magnetic fields emanating from the Earth’s field and with that of the magnet, where the stronger local field of the latter progressively overcomes that of the Earth.
The diagram below depicts these effects when the magnet, at a 45 centimeter separation from the compass is placed at 90 degrees to the N/S alignment of the compass needle and, as the compass is moved progressively closer to a 7 cm separation the needle rotates 90 degrees to come into perfect alignment with the N/S field of the magnet.
In terms of current theory the atomic structure of metals are as depicted below (A) where perfectly spherical atoms of constant dimensions are “randomly rotating and vibrating in place” and are separated by a minuscule volume of vacuum at the face diagonals, comprising 26% of the total volume.
However as iron atoms in a magnet must be collectively and continuously aligned N-S to be able to generate a strong and stable external magnetic field as is observed, there is no possibility of any individual random motions of the component atoms, as is depicted in diagram B.
It is stated unequivocally in scientific literature that most metals are non-magnetic:- “Non-magnetic materials have atoms aligned in random directions, so their magnetic fields cancel each other out”.
It is evident that the general rigidity of all metals can only be the result of the actions of strong inter-atomic attractive forces, as is demonstrated in the image below of gold atoms acting mutually to form a nano scale wire, which is physically drawn out between two pieces of gold. Below this is a reconstruction of an image produced by an electron microscope of atoms at a gold surface.
It is therefore true that in such structural arrangements the magnetic fields of individual atoms “cancel each other out” in respect to generating an externally acting influence, however it is absolutely clear that their fields are not “randomly aligned”.
These short range, attractive effects are confirmed by experiments demonstrating that two such “ultrathin gold nanowires (diameters less than 10 nm) can be cold-welded together within seconds by mechanical contact alone”.
This ‘cold welding’ effect is also observed with larger masses, as when two sheets of various metals are brought into close contact.
“Cold welding was first recognized as a general materials phenomenon in the 1940s. It was then discovered that two clean, flat surfaces of similar metal would strongly adhere if brought into contact under vacuum.” (Wikipedia).
The perfectly plane, facing surfaces of the two metals in Fig. 1 below are brought together while the intervening gases are extracted to create a low pressure environment, which process leads to the complete fusion of the two surfaces so that one, continuous piece of metal is created as in Fig. 4.
This structural arrangement is clearly confirmed by electron microscopy images such as this one below of platinum atoms, which clearly show that atoms are in such close confines that their outer extents are distorted, to the extent that there is no interceding ‘space’ of any description.
It is also observed that when two magnets placed either side of a sheet of metal of any element, e.g. gold as in the diagram below, they are attracted (or repulsed) through this metal.
This means that their fields combine through and therefore influence the magnetic alignments of the atoms of interceding metals, and as soon as the magnets are removed these atoms return to their natural magnetic alignments.
A magnetic field is observed to be emitted to and is transmitted continuously through the intervening atmosphere, in other words there is no ultimate dimensional point where the field is not acting.
But, as it is generally believed by physicists that the atmosphere is composed of a vacuum component 1000 times the volume of the “kinetic” gaseous atoms enclosed within it (which atoms are themselves composed almost entirely of vacuum) then a magnetic field could not in this case, by any theoretical conjecture, interact between the compass and the iron based magnet placed in its vicinity.
The image below depicts two vacuous, gaseous atoms in kinetic motion, the dashed lines are indicative of the hypothetical outer extents of their “electron shields”. Both their electrons and nuclei cannot be shown on this scale, as to be able to show a nucleus as being, say, two pixels in diameter these “electron shields” would need to be over 2 metres in diameter.
Extensive, and very expensive, experiments have failed to isolate, to create the state of perfect vacuum, i.e. to extract all atomic matter from a small compartment, which is inexplicable given its hypothetical quality of non-resistance to the actions of tangible matter.
And so, this general belief of theoretical physicists as to its all-permeating “existence”, which would be incapable of transmitting a force between two macroscopic material entities, is not only absurd, it is stupidity.