Page:Conservationofen00stew.djvu/91

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE FORCES AND ENERGIES OF NATURE.
75

either in the same direction as the hands of a watch, or in the opposite direction, then the two will attract one another; but if the one goes in the one direction, and the other in the other, they will then repel one another.


Attraction and Repulsion of Magnets.

101. Ampère, who discovered this property of currents, has likewise shown us that in very many respects a magnet may be likened to a collection of circular currents all parallel to one another, their direction being such that, if you look towards the north pole of a freely suspended cylindrical magnet facing it, the positive current will descend on the east or left-hand side, and ascend on the west or right-hand side. If we adopt this method of viewing magnets, we can easily account for the attraction between the unlike and the repulsion between the like poles of a magnet, for when unlike poles are placed near each other, the circular currents which face each other are then all going in the same direction, and the two will, therefore, attract one another, but if like poles are placed in this position, the currents that face each other are going in opposite directions, and the poles will, therefore, repel one another.


Induction of Currents.

102. Before closing this short sketch of electrical phenomena, we must allude to the inductive effect of