Question

What do you end up with if you cut a magnet in half ?

• A. One north-pole piece and one south pole piece
• B. Two unmagnetized pieces
• C. Two piece each with a north pole and a south pole
• D. Two north-pole pieces

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

When you cut a bar magnet in half carefully, it will create two smaller magnets, each with their own north and south poles. The dual polarity of magnets is part of their fundamental nature.

Magnetized objects contain grains of magnetized material throughout their structure. The way these grains are aligned creates a magnetic field with two poles (north and south), regardless of their size or orientation. If you were to connect two bar magnets together end to end by their attracting sides, you would essentially have one magnet with one magnetic field.