Send to a Friend

Christian95's avatar

What would happen if I break a magnet to an atomic scale?

Asked by Christian95 (3260points) May 23rd, 2010

Let’s suppose I have a pure iron magnet and every atom of that magnet is magnetizated.This magnet has 2 poles(N and S) and if I start to break it I’ll obtain two smaller magnets and both have 2 newly formed poles.All of this is know,that poles are so far inseparable.
What if continue to break the magnet until I remain with only one atom of that magnet.How will that atom be?Will it still have 2 poles?
And what exactly creates magnetic fields(what makes the iron from this problem a magnet)?Why is iron so special that only it and it’s compounds can be magnets?

Using Fluther

or

Using Email

Separate multiple emails with commas.
We’ll only use these emails for this message.