14 Facts About Magnetic moment

In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment is the magnetic strength and orientation of a magnet or other object that produces a magnetic field.

Magnetic moment can be defined as a vector relating the aligning torque on the object from an externally applied magnetic field to the field vector itself.

Magnetic moment is a quantity that describes the magnetic strength of an entire object.

In magnetic materials, the cause of the magnetic moment are the spin and orbital angular momentum states of the electrons, and varies depending on whether atoms in one region are aligned with atoms in another.

The direction of the magnetic moment is in a direction normal to the area enclosed by the current consistent with the direction of the current using the right hand rule.

Magnetic dipole moment can be calculated for a localized current distribution assuming that we know all of the currents involved.

Therefore, the magnetic moment can be defined in terms of the free energy of a system as.

Any system possessing a net magnetic dipole moment will produce a dipolar magnetic field in the space surrounding the system.

Traditionally, the equations for the magnetic dipole moment are derived from theoretical quantities called magnetic potentials which are simpler to deal with mathematically than the magnetic fields.

Magnetic moment has a close connection with angular momentum called the gyromagnetic effect.

Net magnetic moment of any system is a vector sum of contributions from one or both types of sources.

The magnetic moment of an atom of hydrogen-1 is a vector sum of the following contributions:.

The first term describes precession of the Magnetic moment about the effective field, while the second is a damping term related to dissipation of energy caused by interaction with the surroundings.

Typically, the overall magnetic moment of a molecule is a combination of the following contributions, in the order of their typical strength:.