Magnetic fields in 3D
Explore bar magnets, compasses and a wound electromagnet. Explore the 3D model, inspect its parts and learn with guided explanations. Free on Atlas.
What you can learn
Explore bar magnets, compasses and a wound electromagnet.
Locate both poles.
Follow a complete loop.
Inspect the continuous winding.
Try an investigation
Locate both poles. Then compare closed field loops with electromagnet. Explain what the visible structures show and what the model leaves out.
Check your understanding
Outside a bar magnet, the field points…
North toward south. North toward south. Trace a purple guide outside the magnet and back through its interior. The outside direction goes from north toward south. A field line is a drawing convention, not a physical thread, and these deliberately spaced lines do not provide calibrated field strength.
The purple loops represent…
Magnetic field guides. Magnetic field guides. Trace a purple guide outside the magnet and back through its interior. The outside direction goes from north toward south. A field line is a drawing convention, not a physical thread, and these deliberately spaced lines do not provide calibrated field strength.
What supplies the electromagnet winding?
An electric current. An electric current. The helical copper-coloured conductor wraps around an iron core and connects to a supply through two leads. Compare it with the passive bar magnet: current in the winding contributes a field that can be changed by changing that current.
Sources and model scope
Bar magnet and finite solenoid with schematic field lines and compass indicators. Field magnitudes, iron saturation and electromagnetic dynamics are not numerically solved.