Magnetic current

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So, apparently physicists in Grenoble have managed to create magnetic monopoles, or magnetricity.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... time.html#

The interesting part of this is that it could mean wonders for the computing world because of the way it could be integrated into memory.

I will be more convinced when they show monopoles for the hundredth time using several different methods. The inference of magnetic monopoles from neutron bombardment leaves open the question, can there be another interpretation of this result? This is a very interesting finding and one hopes more work will be done to more firmly establish the conclusion.

ruveyn

Yes, magnetic monopoles are one of those things that should exist, but persist in not actually existing. I recall reading about them in the 1990s, with reports at the time suggesting they had been found in nature or created in a lab (neither proved accurate, as it turned out).

Monopoles have lots of real-world applications, including in maglev-type transportation. But first their existence/creation has to be confirmed repeatedly and independently.

Given the quantization of electric charge it is mathematically possible for magnetic dipoles to exist. Here is a reference to pairs of magnetic charges that -behave- like monopoles at the ends of a Dirac string. But this is a mathematical characterization and it may not be the case that such things are true monopoles.

Please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_m ... rac_string

This section of the wiki article is very much like the article quoted by the O.P.

ruveyn

So it would seem. Wikipedia seems to be getting updated faster these days. I noticed the Aspergers article they had changed drastically from February to July.

Back to topic, I'm also srsly hoping the monopoles are recreated and eventually able to be mass produced... say on the scale of a transistor chip? If the possibility of magnetic current can be applied to computing, and the fact magnetics produce no heat unlike electricity, just the simple effects of that on cooling computers will be tremendous.

In order to describe the magnetic monopole behavior classically, you would have to modify Maxwell's equations to include the existence of magnetic charge. The movement of the magnetic current would create a surrounding electric field just as electric current creates a magnetic field.

I recall a project involving magnetic cubes which when stuck together in a
certain way would be magnetic on one side and not the other, the reason
unknown to me why the other side was not attracting, yet I sort of understood
the pseudo-monopole as a circular magnetic polarity. Still that doesn't explain
why the opposite side, which should therefore be magnetized "counter-clockwise"
was non-attracting. MAYBE IT WAS ALWAYS REPELLING but seemed more likely
neutral. I vaguely remember the cubes arranged like this: ^>V<^ There being 5
in a row and superglued in a vise, and in my diagram the points of the symbols
mean the north side of the cube magnets from one point of view. I might not
remember this phenomenon accurately.

Many years before that I had round magnets with north on one side and south on
the other like heads or tails of a coin. I glued all of the souths to a ball and was
surprised to find out that nothing would stick to the ball. However I did not make
a ball of opposite polarity, yet I would expect it not to stick to the other one if I
did. Maybe magnetic monopoles just don't DO anything, because what else would
they be besides a sphere of only one pole just like I made? The only thing about
that sphere is it wanted to explode and eventually several magnets broke free
and popped off. It seems rather obvious to me that if I made a monopolar
electromagnet by gluing lots of curls of wire onto a ball that it too would
explode with a mess of wire, even melted drops of wire if the current was
high enough, going away fast in every direction. What are monopoles Supposed
to do?

Hmmm... Well I don't think that would work with my monopole but to try it just glue
two flat round magnets together in repulsion and try rotating that near some wires.
I don't think anything would happen since the monopole doesn't do anything. The
non-magnetic metals are probably almost indistinguishable from monopoles,
especially if they are neither diamagnetic nor paramagnetic.

Here's another idea. Put LONG bar magnets on a turntable with norths facing out
and spin it fast and see if any electrostatic (static electricity) appears only with
the magnets on it(*), or if any regular electricity is generated in a perpendicular
wire.
I put the (*) because for certain, electrostatic can appear even when a glass
turntable is spinning, so maybe that happens because there are monopoles
that don't do anything else.

Rotating magnets can induce electric currents in a wire. What you are describing are not magnetic monopoles. Magnetic monopoles are point particles with a magnetic charge represented as either a north or south magnetic pole just like an electron is a particle with negative electric charge. It has only been theorized that magnetic monopoles exist. Static electricity is not caused by moving magnetic monopoles. It is caused by the buildup of electric charge on surfaces.