Every magnet has two poles, the
north and the south. It’s true for magnets big and small, short and tall. If you
break a magnet into smaller pieces, then each small magnet ends up with a north
and a south. (Magnets are said to be polarized, because they have two poles.)
For magnets, if you have a north, you have a south.
That’s the case … usually.
But a recent experiment shows that even magnets can be broken up. In a new
study, scientists, in a way, separate north poles from south poles. One pole
without the other is called a monopole (mono- means one); the researchers also
refer to these isolated poles as magnetic charges. After creating these
monopoles, the scientists were able to make them move through a material. This
movement of magnetic charges acts a lot like a current of electricity, the
researchers report.
And that similarity gave the researchers a great reason to coin a new word. They
call the flow magnetricity (combining the words magnet and electricity).
“We get them all going the same direction,” a physicist at the Laboratory worked
on the new experiment.
It’s too early to start thinking about static magnetricity or plugging
appliances into magnetric sockets ― though the researchers say they’d like to
see magnetronic devices one day. The discovery does highlight some of the
similarities between magnetism and electricity, so perhaps magnetricity’s day
isn’t too far away.
Electricity flows from generators and batteries through power lines and wires.
That electric flow is not liquid — it’s a fast parade of tiny charged particles
called electrons. Each electron is a negative charge, and electric current is
the movement of many negative charges in the same direction.
In the recent experiment, the current did not come from moving electrons ― it
was magnetic, rather than electric. The scientists created the current in small
crystals of a material called spin ice. Spin ice is made of unusual molecules
shaped like pyramids with triangular bases. Imagine lots of these tiny pyramids
linked together and you can imagine what spin ice looks like up close.
Each pyramid has four vertices (vertices is plural for vertex, a point where
three sides come together). Each vertex acts like a tiny magnet with a north
pole and a south pole. If the north poles of two magnets point in, and the north
poles of two magnets point out, then the pyramid-shaped molecule is neutral. But
the molecules don’t always stay neutral.
Sometimes the magnets’ poles flip. When that happens, the magnet at a vertex
switches direction. If its north pole used to point in, now it points out. The
molecule is no longer balanced or neutral, since now it has more north poles
pointed out.
When one magnet switches direction, it causes other magnets to switch direction
― like passing a signal down the line. The molecules stay put but a chain
reaction gets going as the poles, like a relay, move down the line and through
the spin ice.
“Eventually they [the poles] get so far apart that they lose all memory of each
other,” the scientist told Science News.
That’s what happens in the case of magnetricity. To get the magnetic flow going,
the researchers applied pulses of a magnetic field to the crystal. (Magnetic
fields surround magnets and provide the force that can do action. For example,
if you use one magnet to push or pull another ― without letting the magnets
touch — you’re seeing the magnetic field in action.) “We apply a magnetic field
to create magnetic charges,” the researcher said.
As magnets flipped, they appeared to be passing a magnetic monopole down the
line — like the smallest game of hot potato you could imagine (without a
potato). This game of hot potato created a magnetic current. The scientists
measured that current and discovered that it behaved almost exactly like an
electric current. These magnetic currents can last for several minutes.