[Physics] the difference between a bar magnet and an electromagnet

magnetic fields

How can a magnetic field be defined by 2 different phenomena?

A bar magnet produces magnetic field due to its pole strength (+m & -m) but a current carrying element produces magnetic field due to moving charges.

Are these 2 the same thing or different?

It will be helpful if you try to explain it without going into special relativity, or higher level calculus.

Best Answer

Electricity and Magnetism are the two sides of the same coin. Magnetism is produced only due to the effect of moving charges, every charged body in motion acts like a magnet. Therefore, in the atoms of a magnet, the electrons moving around their nucleus are actually magnet! Now one would ask if it was so, then all the elements around us should act like magnet because all of them have electrons. But, the answer is - NO! It is because even if an atom as a whole is magnetic but they all are aligned in such a manner that their net magnetic effect is cancelled out and the element is non magnetic.

In certain elements, the atoms are aligned in such a manner that the magnetic effect do not cancel out. Such elements are known as - "Ferromagnetic Elements" Therefore the magnetic field of a bar magnet is not because of its pole strength but actually because of its perfect alignment of magnetic atoms and that the atoms are magnetic because of the negatively charged moving electrons.