SAGAR SINGH - IIT DELHI
Last Activity: 14 Years ago
Dear deepak,
If earth's magnetic field is considered as "B" ,then it has two components along horizontal and vertical.But while determining null or neutral points of a bar magnet only horizontal component of magnetic field is taken into consideration but not vertical component of magnetic field.
The reason Earth's magnetic field has a horizontal and vertical component is because it is oriented at angle with regard to the bar magnet in most places on Earth. Generally, you choose the reference frame to be that of the plane of the lab bar magnet. Of course you can also do it the other way and say that the lab bar magnet has a horizontal and vertical component while Earth magnet is purely in one direction but that makes things more complicated.
In the UK, the field lines lie about 70 degrees with regard to the horizontal. So when you conduct an experiment to measure the Earth's magnetic field by finding the null points between bar magnet and Earth magnet, you are only finding the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field.
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Sagar Singh
B.Tech IIT Delhi
sagarsingh24.iitd@gmail.com