It's magnetic!

The grandchildren were here yesterday and among other things they seemed awed by the power of the magnets in the darts of a magnetic dart game. I wish the adults were as awed.

After they left I played with the magnets a little. What magic! Hold then a few inches apart and start moving one towards the other. When they get within about a half inch they suddenly jump together with amazing speed and power. Why?

There is no obvious mechanism. Oh sure, we all know it's magnetism. But what IS magnetism? Some smart person will say there's a magnetic field. Ok - so what IS a magnetic field? I know how one works. I know we can predict the results of such a field being present. I know we have a model of such a field that helps us make predictions about how it and objects influenced by it behave.

But all of this involves simple descriptions of consistent and repeatable behavior. That's very useful for the scientist or technician, but not so useful to me. To me this is pure magic - it is action at a distance. It is two objects interacting when there is no visible connection between them. From a common sense viewpoint this doesn't make any more sense than mind reading, or other discredited magic.

I have more confidence in it than mind reading. I "believe" it. I just don't understand it on a meaningful level and I'm not sure anyone else does.

And that, by the way, is much the same way I feel about the new Hubble photograph described in Natural High today. We seem to have moved from awe to knowledge - and we need to move back to awe again because the type of knowledge we have is limited.

Posted by Greg Stone at May 12, 2003 07:41 AM