Magnetism
NOV 01, 1949
An intangible force that keeps us in touch with points as remote as the sun, or the other end of town, or the atomic nucleus, magnetism is little understood though widely used.
DOI: 10.1063/1.3066305
The same force that drives the great majority of the rotating shafts of industry (and makes possible the communication which prevents our industrial civilization from breaking down under its own complexity) is used as a probe for investigating the minutiae of atoms and nuclei. So fundamental to existence itself is magnetism that the extent to which we can use this force has far outdistanced our understanding of its nature; in taking the measure of magnetism, scientists must range over many worlds.
More about the Authors
Francis Bitter. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
© 1949. American Institute of Physics
