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www.GOALias.blogspot.comPhysicsnowadays you would call engineers). These ‘engineers’built a chariot on which they placed a magnetic figurewith arms outstretched. Figure 5.1 is an artist’sdescription of this chariot. The figure swiveled aroundso that the finger of the statuette on it always pointedsouth. With this chariot, Huang-ti’s troops were ableto attack the enemy from the rear in thick fog, and todefeat them.In the previous chapter we have learned that movingcharges or electric currents produce magnetic fields.This discovery, which was made in the early part of thenineteenth century is credited to Oersted, Ampere, Biotand Savart, among others.In the present chapter, we take a look at magnetismFIGURE 5.1 The arm of the statuetteas a subject in its own right.mounted on the chariot always pointssouth. This is an artist’s sketch of one Some of the commonly known ideas regardingof the earliest known compasses, magnetism are:thousands of years old. (i) The earth behaves as a magnet with the magneticfield pointing approximately from the geographicsouth to the north.(ii) When a bar magnet is freely suspended, it points in the north-southdirection. The tip which points to the geographic north is called thenorth pole and the tip which points to the geographic south is calledthe south pole of the magnet.(iii) There is a repulsive force when north poles ( or south poles ) of twomagnets are brought close together. Conversely, there is an attractiveforce between the north pole of one magnet and the south pole ofthe other.(iv) We cannot isolate the north, or south pole of a magnet. If a bar magnetis broken into two halves, we get two similar bar magnets withsomewhat weaker properties. Unlike electric charges, isolated magneticnorth and south poles known as magnetic monopoles do not exist.(v) It is possible to make magnets out of iron and its alloys.We begin with a description of a bar magnet and its behaviour in anexternal magnetic field. We describe Gauss’s law of magnetism. We thenfollow it up with an account of the earth’s magnetic field. We next describehow materials can be classified on the basis of their magnetic properties.We describe para-, dia-, and ferromagnetism. We conclude with a sectionon electromagnets and permanent magnets.1745.2 THE BAR MAGNETOne of the earliest childhood memories of the famous physicist AlbertEinstein was that of a magnet gifted to him by a relative. Einstein wasfascinated, and played endlessly with it. He wondered how the magnetcould affect objects such as nails or pins placed away from it and not inany way connected to it by a spring or string.