2006-12-11 05:23:57 · 8 answers · asked by Generator gator 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
This can't happen. Think of them like isobars on a weather map, as the weather man moves time on, you see them influence each other and change shape, but they never actually cross. It's kinda the same thing with magnetic flux lines. They are a tool defined mathematically to describe a magnetic field, and the way they have been defined also mathematically implies they can't cross. (Any other mathematical defintion of flux lines would render them as garbage) If you are good with calculus you should look at the maths behind them, and see for yourself, its the only way to understand properly.
2006-12-11 05:43:37 · answer #1 · answered by Peter 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Grizzly B is correct, but deserves clarification. The zero part is actually a fancy way of saying that there can't be any poles from which magnetic field lines originate, so that all magnetic lines are continuous with no terminus. A mathematical consequence of this is that they can't cross.
Oddly enough, sandman72986 is also correct, in that if two different means of creating a magnetic field were both "turned on", there will be a resulting single magnetic field in place of "crossing magentic lines" from the two.
2006-12-11 05:32:50 · answer #2 · answered by Scythian1950 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Grizzly B is very correct. Lines of magnetic flux as a result of Maxwell's equations cannot cross.
2006-12-11 05:36:06 · answer #3 · answered by msi_cord 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends what you're actually referring to. A polar shift (or catastrophic crustal displacement) is supposed to be the physical rotation of the Earth's crust, causing all sorts of large scale disasters. They have never been shown to have happened and there is no evidence that they can happen at all. If you are referring to a geomagnetic reversal (wrongly described by some people as a polar shift) then it is the switch in the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field (essentially North becomes South and South becomes North). This does happen on a fairly regular (in geological terms) basis and you wouldn't really notice it as they take several thousand years to complete. The end result would be compasses pointing in the opposite directions. The field itself is thought to weaken and become slightly chaotic during the event so there would also be some strange atmospheric effects and possibly a small increase in cancer rates as a result of increased atmospheric exposure to the solar wind.
2016-05-23 05:47:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can't happen. The basic four laws of electricity and magnetism are called Maxwell's Laws; one of these states that the divergence of a magnetic field is zero. That's a fancy way of stating that magnetic field lines can't cross, among other things.
2006-12-11 05:30:59 · answer #5 · answered by Grizzly B 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
They would produce and net magnetic flux in a single direction. Its magnitude and direction can be solved with vectors.
2006-12-11 05:26:44 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
In the intersection the magnetic field would have two directions.
That is impossible.
Th
2006-12-11 06:23:06 · answer #7 · answered by Thermo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably they would have a baby flux, no doubt.
2006-12-11 16:12:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋