Magnetism

well, if you're talking about magnets as in fridge magnets, we can go to the greeks.There's a naturally occuring rock that is magnetic--magnetite (hence where the term magnet, magnetism, et al came from). They realized that if pointed towards one general direction, and voila, the compass was born. highly simplified, and no doubt some gross errors, but . . .there are other types of magnets, from the electromagnets (like they use in junkyards for lifting scrap) to those created during WWII (NiCd something else), and some others.basically, the first magnet, as I understand the term, was found by the greeks, but not really put to any good use (at that time). The first magnetic force, well, that's been answered by Kalimero.abe:
your moniker--aren't those the statues just past Lothlorien that are built into the cliff walls by the river?Edited by kuresu, : No reason given.

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you may be right--I know they had the first compasses, but . . .when did the greeks and chinese find thier first magnets? The only naturally occuring ones I know of are in Greece, but there are probably more sources.what's really sad, is that the chinese were the first to circumnavigate and map the world, and a good 70 years at least before columbus even got to Hispaniola. I mean, they even had colonies on the west coast of the US. And then, isolationism kicked in, and the renassaince in europe started. anywho, not really on topic, huh?

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no, you don't. But argonath's question included something about hte first magnets and where they came from. so I attempted a highly simplified answer.magnets help, of course, in finding out you've got a magnetic field. at least, with finding out earlier. but I don't think I was trying to make the point that we needed magnets to discover the field. If it came off like that, well, it was unintentional.

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I don't recall argontath ever asking how magentism ever came into being. here's the bulk of his OP: He wants to know what magnetism is. He wants to know when the first magnet came into being (and we interpreted that as being like a fridge magnet). The last question, is whether it's spiritual or not--it's entirely physical, which, if we didn't show, we hinted at.I think you've misread his OP.

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