Well I would have to research about it that is for sure, but I don't hold out any possiblity. I mean first off, I am no scientist so I don't have enough knowledge on the subject, but I do like to spark up a conversation about it to perhaps find new answers on it.

Actually black holes scare me. I saw it once on television how huge they supposingly are. The size of universes swallowing up everything. Supposingly scientists have discovered them and still are trying to figure out its mysterious properties.

In the end I find it all intriguing and if you have knowledge about it then don't hesitate to share knowledge with us. It is but a friendly chat in here.

going back to magnets and forces I was reading the other day about how every once in a while, the poles reverse. In that the planet's magnetic poles reverse polarity (i.e. Compass needles that have always pointed north would point south). Which is often the technique used to date ancient objects..... Think how weird that would be if it were to happen. Would it destroy life on the planet - I don`t know.

These reversals apparently happen roughly every 250,000 years - so you may think we are OK. But if you consider that it's been over 700,000 years since the last reversal.....eek.

Actually saw this on television. I find that interesting.

Yes that would be interesting to know what would happen if the magnetic poles reversed.

I should look to see what the internet has on it.

Actually saw this on television. I find that interesting.

Yes that would be interesting to know what would happen if the magnetic poles reversed.

I should look to see what the internet has on it.

Actually saw this on television. I find that interesting.

Yes that would be interesting to know what would happen if the magnetic poles reversed.

I should look to see what the internet has on it.

Don't know why it posted three times! Computer must of had a bad case of hiccups.

Excuse me

take a spoonful of vinegar!

The neatest thing about magnets is that they hold up my sons beautiful art up on the fridge.

Abra, I liked your comment about magnetism. But now I find I cannot resist quoting Feynman....

from the Wiki on "Fields"

Defining the field as "numbers in space" shouldn't detract from the idea that it has physical reality. “It occupies space. It contains energy. Its presence eliminates a true vacuum.”[2] The vacuum is free of matter, but not free of field. The field creates a "condition in space"”[3]

If an electrical charge is moved, the effects on another charge do not appear instantaneously. The first charge feels a reaction force, picking up momentum, but the second charge feels nothing until the influence, traveling at the speed of light, reaches it and gives it the momentum. Where is the momentum before the second charge moves? By the law of conservation of momentum it must be somewhere. Physicists have found it of "great utility for the analysis of forces"[3] to think of it as being in the field.

-=-=-=-

So, to answer Smiles questions.

1. A magnet is something that produces a magnetic field. All materials respond to magnetic fields some much more strongly than others.

2. Magnetism (and electricity which are related through Maxwell's equations) are fundamental building blocks of nature arising from charge density and current density - conceptual tools which we need to understand if we are to understand how ALL things work.

3. Magnets are unique. Why? Because .

Why would life intrinsically care which way magnetic north is?

Some critters may get confused, but only ones with built in compasses. Magnetic north already shifts around all the time, a reversal would just mean we have to pant the other side of the hand on the compass.

So what is generally concluded is that magents show their effects very well when they are explained by the concept of a field. The idea of lines of force, as they go with this field description, also have a unique form proposed in Gravitation, namely that a magnet can be represented as a wormhole, with lines of force going to one end, through the hole, and out at the opposite pole, in a sort of loop configuration. That example about the momentume is great for its clarity. About the most wonderous thing about magnetism is that its oscilations (magnetism and electric charges) go in a void at the important and terrific value c by Maxwell. Considering the example about momentum being in the field, and beeing lobbed back and forth between two charges, it could be said that light has momentum. But where is the field for electromagnetism? Such perplexities sent many thinkers, and perhaps a whole era, on a quest to dtect the seat of the electromagnetic force, and like many scientific endeavors, it was a bummer. The results were nill again and repeated!

Dropping this issue for now, and moving ahead to ideas focusing on the momentum part. To do so it must be noted that light is imperitive in our conception of time. It is a somewhat circular defintion, as any high school student can point out, if they look at the SI defintion of a second. Yet it is stuck in our minds, and has augmented understanding in physical thought. So light itself is for now a measure of time. If the momentum it has upon interacting with bodies is taken into account, momentum then has time-like characteristics. A larger momentum, or a bigger push, has more time associated with it, and smaller, simply less. This works even for gravity. A mass bends spacetime, and if the curvature is significant, time slows down, and hence it is harder to pull a body away from that noteworthy mass, and so the opposite.

Keeping to this momentum view of things, the spacetime also affects bodies, as can be seen be the worldlines of test particles. But just as the field stores momentum in magnetism, the exchange between spacetime metric or curvature and mass of body is not instantaneous, as indeed all gravitational effects, like graviational waves, must go at light speed. So what is the holder of this matter-continium exchange? Perhaps this gets one closer to the feeling of when Einstein said that indeed, the existence of spacetime in his general relativity took the role that the Ether did in Newtons program, if i read the meaning of his remark correctly. So the beauty of Einsteins approach is that the ether is contained Inside the theory, at least, in his field equations.

So when one looks at the presented problem, of where the exchange of momentum can take place, if not in empty space, which is really equivalent to actual "nothingness," or in the matter-energy either, where else to put it besides in the other stars, and their relation to the specific epoch at hand? So The only thing I know about magnetism is that it must lead to a better understanding of other phenomena.