"Channelling" an electromagetic field question

This is just something I am curious about related to something else I was reading. I'm hoping someone here can enlighten me as I haven't found an answer on the net yet.

Take a standard electromagtic field, for example the Earth's.

Okay I know the standard pattern that leaves kind of a blind spot at the poles and two fields radiating out like so:



What I am wondering is can you introduce another (magnetic?) force or object to change the shape/flow/direction of that magnetic field? Not neccessarily the Earth's - I just use that as an easily recognised example - but any magentic field. Can the field itself be subject to other magnetic infuences?

Cheers in advance.

Edit: Spelling

[edit on 13-4-2005 by whita]

im not sure, i will look into it,

i thnk the earths magnetic field is relatively weak, which is why cars, knives, keychains etc arent all shooting up toward the north pole.

[edit on 13-4-2005 by Shadow88]

Also what would be your purpose of introducing another e-mag field against the earths

I just mean electromagnetic fields in general. I was just using the Earth's as an example. Just basically wondering whether the pattern "warps" under another the influence of another electromagnetic field.

I'm gonna have to go with a definite yes.

If I put a second Earth next to that one, it seems pretty logical that they would either interfere or amplify each other's fields. I'm afraid I don't know what stimuli corresponds with what response, but I do know that every single thing in the universe can change or be manipulated.

I beleive that if another potent magnetic field is applied it could possibly temporarily alter the magnetic field, but I think the only way to permanently change a magnetic field is to change the magnet itself.

Look into your pineal gland, it has a great deal to do with your extra sensory perception of electromagnetic fields.

Fields obey superposition, so any field felt by anything is a sum of any fields in place. You are right now feeling fields from every magnetic and charged source around, just of varying degrees.

The Sun has a huge effect on the shape of our field.

That sun picture is what I had in my head until I scrolled to it

Yup think of electromagnetic fields (just like the Earths) as electrons compressed into their waveform. They exist in two dimensions, so they see gravity differently. The 2 dimensional gravity of a charged spinning conductor (like the Earths core) is intense around the equator and nonexistant at the poles (the 3 dimensional effect being inertia). The electron waveforms flow out at the poles where there is no gravity. They still act like electrons so they follow paths of 'least resistance' (this is the best term I can come up with when talking about matters operating differently on different dimensions), producing the identifiable magnetic field lines. Also, since they still act like electrons, they repel eachother. You can compress back and forth fields by varying their proximity. And they can also change lines and merge/split, just like electrons.
When the field lines intersect a conductive material, the difference in the gravity between the poles and the equator is focused on the conductor. This is magnetic attraction. As a result, electrons decompress within the conductor, creating electricity.
Gravitons come into play too but thats wandering a little far off topic
Obviously this is all a product of string/M-theory, but it's a lot easier to understand magnetic fields, how they work, and how they affect eachother if you think of them as electrons in their waveform.

Thanks Amorymeltzer & APC for those answers. Was just what I was looking for

Originally posted by whita
Thanks Amorymeltzer & APC for those answers. Was just what I was looking for

Glad to help. It'd be a shame if all that physics and pretty picture books went to waste.

At any rate, that magnetic field is pretty much what's keeping us all alive. Or, at the very least, letting us leave our houses. Thank it!

Yeah is an interesting area. I have been researching electromagnetic propulsion for something I am writing and the question had come out of that. I'd thought that it (EMP) came from from manipulation of an electromagnetic field, but rather it is controlling the oscillation of the electromagnet itself. Basically starting an electromagnet 400,000 times a second. Pretty cool stuff.

That led me to wonder a bit about the shape and "flow" of an electromagnetic field and if it could be manipulated.

Im a full believer that the HAARP array can do nearly anything. Check out any info on it and see how the earths EM field can be modified. Or check out bios on Nikola Tesla. Dude is still a man waaaay ahead of his time.

Originally posted by whita I just use that as an easily recognised example - but any magentic field. Can the field itself be subject to other magnetic infuences?

Yes, any magnetic field can be altered. Also, passing a conductive capable metal thru a magnetic field will generate an electric current and electric field, and passing other magnetic capable metals thru electric fields will generate magnetic fields and magnetism. This is how most turbines work I beleive.

Electromagnetic propulsion is a pretty sweet field. I see it evolving to graviton field generation which is very plausible with modern day technology.

That led me to wonder a bit about the shape and "flow" of an electromagnetic field and if it could be manipulated.

Yup, waveguides. A directional EMP can be created using a long coil, the. A shorter coil over one end of the long one. This will create a long field extending forward (calling the shorter coil the 'rear'). Place waveguides inside the long coil. They would look like... cookie cutters I guess. A circle with the center cut out and the inside edge notched many times. The size, notching, spacing, and everything take complex calculations. Hook up an arc gap to generate random highfrequencies and put a few hundred thousand volts into it. A large capacitor bank with an input of a few thousand volts works well. You get a very intense focused magnetic field pulse modulating at thousands of different frequencies. The collapse of this field induces a massive charge in any conductive metals within the field. In theory, a device like this could fry satellites with minimal side-damage... maybe a plane or two drops out of the sky and all communication on the East coast gets knocked out for a few hours... nothing serious

I built a small device of this design in middleschool. the target TV looked pretty twisted when it went off from across the room but my perspective was also somewhat askew as at the time I was in midair flight due to a 3000volt arc into my hands. I couldnt feel my arms for an hour. I should be dead.

Be careful, please.

Thanks Nygdan, that means I was on the right track with what I was orinigally thinking. Nice to know.

Yeah, Nicola Tessla was a very interesting man. I have read a bit about him. Seems like a lot of his research had plenty of promise. It is that research that has lead me in a roundabout way to what I am looking at now.

Originally posted by apc
Electromagnetic propulsion is a pretty sweet field. I see it evolving to graviton field generation which is very plausible with modern day technology.

Am I to take it from that you mean that it will eventually lead to artificial gravity? That would tie in really nicely to what I am doing. I had already decided it would for my purposes but more of a side product of the EMP.

On the "Be careful" part. I am writer so shouldn't be in any great danger as I won't be trying this for real. Besides I was raised in the country, I learnt about the danger and potential of electricity the first time I tried to step over an electric fence with shorts on!

This is good stuff everyone and is really helpful.

I believe it already has with charged spinning superconductors.
I also believe the effects of magnetism are just a form of gravity, through the actions of gravitons.
Note I say believe, at this point being from strings this remains pure theory. As of yet noone has built a flying saucer/sphere (the shape the craft would need to be) generating graviton/anti-graviton fields to propel itself into space, but I dont think we're too far off from realizing a practical model.
But who knows?! [melodramatic sample here] Youuuuu know what Im talking about.