Why do things have to spin to create a magnetic field?

Answer 1

Most generally, magnetic fields are produced by moving charges. If the magnetic field is to stay constant, the charges have to keep moving the same way. As has been pointed out, a straight wire with a current flowing through it does generate a magnetic field, but somewhere you have to complete the circuit otherwise the electric charges will be building up at the ends of the wire.

If you have a finite-sized object which generates a constant magnetic field, you know that there are charges inside it which are moving uniformly. If they're not travelling in some sort of orbit which repeats over time, then eventually they will all have moved to wherever they're going, and the magnetic field will disappear. So, a compact object with a uniform field must have circulating charges within it.

Answer 2

They don't HAVE to spin. A current through a wire creates a magnetic field, and there's no spin involved there. Magnetic fields are created by changing electric fields (and electric fields can be created by changing magnetic fields). Look up "Faraday's Law" and "Ampere's Law." (Really, they are both forms of the electromagnetic field). So basically, what you need is a moving charge to create a magnetic field. If a charge moves in a circle, it creates a magnetic field. If it moves in a straight line, it creates a magnetic field. Power lines have magnetic fields. Your computer has a magnetic field. Want proof? Put a compass next to it or any other wire.

Now, it gets weird. Electrons, Protons, Neutrons, etc. all have an instrinsic (meaning it has to do with the particle, not an external observer's condition) property that mathematically resembles a spinning object with charge. So physicists, before they realized exactly what it was, they called it "spin" - as in intrinsic anglular momentum. Spin gives particles a magnetic moment - so there's a small magnetic field associated with the particle. In a magnet, the atoms are lined up in such a way that the "spins" of the atoms (which is like the spins of the electrons - they are related) are lined up to produce a big magnetic field.

Answer 3

Well, an atom or a compound is said to have "spin" when it has unpaired electrons in its outer energy level and the electric charge of the molecule due to the unpaired electrons is what causes a magnetic field. So its not necessarily the actual object that spins, it is a property of an electron called spin. Its actually much more complicated than that but that is the easiest way I can think of to explain it without going into quantum physics. :)

Answer 4

They don't - a bar magnet has a magnetic field and doesn't spin (although it may loose its magnetic field over time.

From what I remember at school it all has to do with the alignment of the ions

Answer 5

This is because when they spin, they 'cut' an invisible line of magnetism which produces the magnetic field. Generators work in the same way.

Answer 6

I was gone yesterday and didn't send an answer.

Electrons are electromagnetic energy that is formed due to spin. We think of mass spin as being a mass that is equal on all sides of its axis of rotation. That is not true with the electron. Spin in this instance is that of a "standing wave" that perpetually exists in a singular state. The "spin" of the electron is composed of an electromagnetic wave that continually moves in a very small arc of more than 360 degrees and then overlaps part of its frequency. The overlap area causes the photon to remain bonded into what we call the electron.

Because of its great spin (continual circular movement at a speed of 186,000 mps) magnetic lines form at one end of the electron. These form due to resistence to the rest of the electron movement. I picture these outward, spreading lines as that of a vortex, with the lines extending not directly outward, but at an angle to its axis of spin. Lines formed in this manner allow for attraction and repulsion of other electrons.

There is a equatorial electric field through the plane of the equator, and a mass forms in the opposite part of the electron that is equal in energy the extending magnetic lines. Mass, in the electron may be defined as that which offers resistence to movement. This concept is clearly seen in electrons that are deflected in a magnetic field.

In our planet, the spin of the total mass causes earth's magnetic lines to form. The energy of spin of our planet causes mass acceleration that increases from the poles toward the equator. The energy of spin of the hemispheres is opposite one to the other. This energy is that which forms the Coriolis Effect, where water and winds move in opposite directions in the two hemispheres.

When these forces meet at the plane of our equator, they are moving in opposite directions. This causes a shearing action through the plane of the equator. Within our planet is a vast area of plasma (an area where electrons are no longer bonded into outer shells of individual atoms, and so are free to move where they will. A shearing action through a plasma region causes an electrical field to form (as in a generator). When an electrical field forms, a magnetic one forms at right angles to it. It is for this reason earth has negative and positive poles - mass rotation is the same, but the energy of spin is opposite in the two hemispheres.

This condition is evidenced in the southern hemisphere at the equator. There is a 25 foot mass rise in this area that is not present in the sourthern hemisphere at the equator. The reason for the rise in the southern hemisphere, is that the force of rotation is opposite that of the moving earth mass, which moves in the same direction in both hemispheres, and the energy risistance forces it to rise (like sticking your hand in a fast moving small stream, and watching the water rise on the side of your hand that it pushes against).

In all instances, where a particular kind of energy is being formed, change in mass/energy is required. In the formation of electric fields, because it is formed by an magnetic relationship, a mass must move in some manner to initate the field. A person could generate an electric field by causing a mass to go back and forth instead of rotating, but it is easier, and more energy efficient to rotate a mass than cause it to move back and forth.

Answer 7

The psoitive and negative ions have to move at faster speeds to maintain the magnet.

Answer 8

locomotion