Why don't magnets run out of 'juice'?

Question

They don't need recharging and keep on going, and going and going . . .

Answer 1

Magnets may not run out of juice because the force of magnetism, actually just one of the aspects of the electroweak force, has an energy that is, like all forms of energy, quantized. Within a certain magnet, descrete packets of energy abound, and when both energy and mass are conserved (no part is chipped off from the magnet, or no heat leaves or enters the magnet), the energy within the magnet is conseved; the packets do not change since no medium acts as a passage way for the quanta of energy stored in the magnet to go out to the environment.

But since the condition for the conservation of mass-energy is too fancy to be true, in actuality, magnets do actually decrease in streangth, the same as gravity actually does decrease in influence. This is perhaphs the most fundamental rule of nature - that the universe will, to a time approaching infinity, be in a state of complete equilibrium. For the magnetic force, that would mean that the magnetic force of the whole universe is uniformly distributed. If that happens, there would be no magnets, things which are simply a concentration of quantized magnetic field sources.

Answer 2

There is a difference between force and energy (or work).

For example my coffee cup exerts a downwards force on my computer table as it sits there doing nothing. This takes no energy. Moving the cup from the table top to the top of the computer does take energy.

Energy = force x distance

If I push the south poles of two bar magnets together there is both a force and a distance involved so this takes energy. The energy does not come from the magnetic field but from me forcing them together. As the south polls get pushed together the magnetic fields that surround the poles get distorted and the distorted magnetic field stores the “potential” energy. If I release one of the magnets it will be pushed away from the other and the “potential” energy will be depleted (used up) as the magnets move apart. Some outside agent would be required to push them together again and that outside agent would have to supply the necessary energy as I had done in the first place.

The magnetic field then acts somewhat like an invisible spring.

If one of the magnets is turned around so that the south pole of one faces the north pole of the other the two magnets can pull themselves together. This takes energy so the magnets are in a lower energy state than before. Nothing more will happen unless an external agent pulls the magnets apart and that takes energy but the energy must come from the external agent or the magnets are not going to move. By pulling the magnets apart energy is put into the system.

The bottom line is that energy can be stored in the magnetic field by distorting it but energy only comes out of the field by decreasing the distortion. The field can exert a force all day but it can only release energy that is stored in it and that energy needs to be replaced before anymore can be released.

Answer 3

Gravity doesn't run out of juice either. Both are fields from which you can extract only as much energy as you put in, or as might exist as potential energy.. You can generate electricity with a magnet, but you have to do mechanical work to get it. In the case of a magnet attracting something, the magnet does run down at least temporarily. The magnet's field is absorbed by the held object and the magnet's lifting power is diminished until you remove the attached object. And the process of removing requires work equal to what was done on the object when it was attracted.

Answer 4

Magnetic fields are created by the motion of electrons. All atoms have electrons in motion so every atom is a mini magnet. In most materials all those little magnetic fields cancel each other but in some materials like iron they align and add up to a bigger field. A magnet won't run out of juice until the electrons stop moving and that's apparently a pretty long time.

Answer 5

Magnetism appears around a particular mass structure due to motions and orientation of the electrons iin the structure.
Any change of energy in the structure would cause a change of magnetic field.
One example is any thing that would cause alignment orientation of electrons such as heating the magnetic material would neutralize or decrease the field.

Answer 6

Like all other materials, permanent magnets are made up of atoms that have electrons orbiting a nucleus of protons and neutrons. In moving around the nucleus, these electrons create miniscule magnetic fields. In most materials, these tiny fields all point in different random directions, so the bulk material does not have a magnetic field. But in permanent magnets, the fields are all lined up together, and so the material is magnetized. Materials, like iron, that can be magnetized, are called ferromagnetic.

Over time, some magnets can lose some of their strength, or potency if the electrons' magnetic fields revert or point in more random directions.

Hope that helps explain it for you.
Have fun!

Addendum: You can magnetize a screw driver: try rubbing a magnet along the steel shaft in one direction, (from handle to blade tip) over and over and over. You are organizing the tiny magnetic fields in the stainless. Now you can de-magnetize by rubbing the opposite direction, from tip to handle. Presto!

Answer 7

Magnetism is not an energy that can be depleted. It is a natural sub atomic property ot the magnetic material itself. The electricity that is being produced with the help of magnetism is the energy that was converted from the mechanical energy which is the movement of electrical conductor around the magnetic lines of force.

Answer 8

they don't run out of juice cause they have all of that magnetic power and its really strong FOR EXAMPLE you had a picture and a refrigerator the medel is in side the refrigerator and the magnet has that much energy to go through the picture and the refrigerator

Answer 9

The earth's magnetic field.

Answer 10

They exert a certain amount of force, but overtime that force decreases. I thought that same thought too, but nothing has an unlimited amount of energy.