An interesting insight certainly, but does it matter? Magnetic Field Lines are an artificial visualization tool akin to the lines on a topographical map, the actual magnetic field is seamless.
Even if you are correct and the field lines do in fact form spirals, the same number of field lines will still enter and leave a closed surface (except in the rare case of a surface which contains the field producing conductor within it) The whole point is that a magnetic field can also be visualized as a 3d surface, whose elevation (z axis) represents field strength. Any closed loop on this surface would have the same number of elevation lines (field lines) entering and exiting, which is to say that if you walked around the loop you would end up at the same elevation as you started. Merlyn --- Grimer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There are certain advantages is being a quasi modo > in the > cathedral of EM. > > One can rush in and utter terrible heresies in all > innocence. > > I have been recently going through a rather > comprehensive > site on EM, to wit:- > > http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/302l/lectures/lectures.html > > and I find that my recognition on general grounds > that the field > lines around a conductor form a tight spiral and not > a series of > closed loops is anathema as far as "Gauss' law for > magnetic fields" > is concerned since, > > > ======================================================== > An immediate corollary of the above law > [i.e.Gauss' Law] > is that the number of magnetic field lines which > enter > a closed surface is always equal to the number > of field > lines which leave the surface. In other words: > > Magnetic field lines form closed loops which > never begin > or end. Thus, magnetic field lines behave in a > quite > different manner to electric field lines, which > begin on > positive charges, end on negative charges, and > never form > closed loops. > > ======================================================== > > I suppose being a heretic would be more fun if I had > ever been > baptised in the EM church - but then perhaps I would > have never > seen the looniness of loops. > > I now realise why the hierarchical identity between > a coil and > a capacitor has never been recognised in physical > terms. > > I shall have to try and reconstruct the diagram I > drew many years > ago but never actually incorporated into any > Internal Note. > > Cheers > > Frank Grimer > > > > __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour: http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html
