User:Wilf James/sandbox

The correct interpretation of the sun's magnetism
This relates to the part of the Wikipedia entry for the Sun concerning magnetic fields. It is hoped that what follows here will form the basis of a more accurate description of phenomena on and around the sun that are related to magnetism.

The part about the Sun's magnetic field refers to magnetic field lines that "get tangled". In all my career working with electricity (68 years) I have never ever encountered a magnetic field line or any instrument that can detect magnetic field lines.

The idea of magnetic field lines probably arose with the bar magnet and iron filings on a piece of paper demonstration/experiment. The appearance of lines is caused by the iron filings becoming induced magnets with north-south polarities. The north of one filing is attracted to the south of the next filing along the line of the bar magnet's north-south axis. In practice the filings form chains between the north and south poles of the bar magnet. As each chain of filings forms a long induced magnet, and all chains of filings have the same magnetic polarity, the chains of filings are mutually repulsive and give the appearance of lines. If the bar magnet, paper and iron filing experiment is repeated it will be seen that the "lines" are never in the same places. Either there are an infinite number of lines or no lines at all. Therefore any explanation of magnetism anywhere that mentions magnetic lines of force should be regarded as being fundamentally false.

The concept of magnetic "line" or fields becoming "entangled" must be a figment of someone's imagination. Cathode ray tubes as used in television monitors routinely use mixed magnetic fields to control an electron beam PRECISELY.

Two or more magnetic fields work in a similar way to mechanical forces. A combination of two or more magnetic fields will result in just one resultant field in the same way as a combination of mechanical forces will result in one resultant force. There is never any thought that mechanical forces can become entangled so the same must apply to magnetic forces.

Magnetism is ONLY a PROPERTY of an electric current if permanent magnets are excluded. In space, there are no permanent magnets. The problem arises in astronomy because magnetic fields are easily detectable but the electric currents that produce them are not. In and around the sun the atoms are hot enough to be ionised. The heat of the sun causes convection of the ionised gases to occur. The movements of the convected ionised gases form electric currents. Some of the ionised gas movements can be observed at ultaviolet wavelengths. Otherwise most of the gas movements are invisible. It would seem from the reports of the observations of the sun's phenomena that what is not seen is ignored. What are observed are the magnetic fields. The magnetic fields are treated as if they arise spontaneously and are treated as entities with properties that have no parallel with the magnetic fields observed on Earth.

Many of the sun's apparent magnetic phenomena can be understood more easily by comparing them with the magneto-hydrodynamic method envisaged for propelling spacecraft. The MHD system uses electric and magnetic fields to accelerate particles to a very high speed to form a sort of rocket exhaust. If the concept of the MHD system is inverted it is easier to see what happens in and around the sun. The sun's heat provides the energy for the propulsion of jets of ionised gases which generate magnetic fields around themselves.

The jets of ionised gases ejected from within the sun have magnetic fields around them. Their magnetic fields are constrictive, making the jets relatively narrow. As the ionised gases have mass and the sun has a gravity 28 times as strong as the Earth's gravity, most of these upward jets fall over and return towards the sun's apparent surface. These returning jets are in the form of arcs and are referred to as "magnetic loops" in Wikipedia and in many astronomy books. The only magnetic parts about these jets are the magnetic fields around them which cause them to to maintain their narrowness on their upward and downward paths. Magnetism is always an invisible force, just as invisible as gravity. The "magnetic loops" are plainly visible at certain wavelengths of light so they cannot be magnetic.

The magnetism observed on and around the sun is an indirect EFFECT of the sun's emission of heat. It is NEVER a cause of any forms of solar phenomena.

Other references to magnetism in the sun and planets mention a dynamo effect. The so-called dynamo generation of a magnetic field cannot work because it is in direct conflict with Lenz's Law. (Lenz's law is covered in a separate article in Wikipedia.) 'The current induced in a moving conductor by a magnetic field will have a magnetic field of the opposite polarity to the magnetic field that induced the current in the first place.' There is no combination of moving conductors and magnetic fields that can create a self-sustaining magnetic field.

The problems with the descriptions of magnetism in space are based on the way Wikipedia itself operates. Later writers quote earlier writers without doing any experiments to confirm what has been written previously. As I said earlier, magnetism is relatively easy to detect through the Zeemann effect. The moving, highly ionised gas particles that form the electric currents that produce the magnetism are largely invisible.

I cannot provide references to support what I have written here in the ordinary sense. However, any modern basic textbook on electricity and magnetism for engineers will show that magnetism is SOLELY a property of an electric current (if permanent magnets are excluded). Such a book will also show that current carriers flowing in the same direction will have magnetic fields that join together and cause the current carriers to be drawn closer to each other. (This effect in cathode ray tubes causes an electron beam to become very narrow and 'focused' to form a small spot on the screen.) Current carriers flowing in opposite directions will have magnetic fields that repel each other. Such a book will also show that a magnetic field is at right angles to the current that produces it. The same book will also include a formal statement of Lenz's law, a law that most astronomers conveniently ignore.

To sum up, astronmers' magnetism and electrical engineers' magnetism are totally incompatible.

Wilfred James BSc. 106 Jarden Letchworth G.C. Herts U.K.