There are a few different types of magnetism, but ferromagnetism is the one most people are familiar with. Refrigerator magnets or magnets on executive toy things are almost always ferromagnets. Ferromagnets are actually just elements such as iron or compounds that exhibit the property of retaining their magnetic history. This means that when a magnetic field is applied to the object, the inividual molecules will all allign to produce a net magnet field in a common direction. When the external magnetic field is removed the molecules in the material remain alligned and continue to produce a magnetic field. You might have a piece of iron whose molecules are all alligned differently with respect to each other, but when an external magnetic field is turned on, they will all line up together. Over time the molecules will become unaligned due to other external phenomenon, but as soon as that magnetic field is reapplied they will fall right back into line.
One can make a connection between ferromagnetism and quaker quarter meetings by equating individuals in a meeting to individual molecules in a material. As individuals quakers will think independantly of their religious community, but in quarter meetings, individuals move towards having similar trains of thought. It is like a bunch of arrows pointing in different directions, but when the meeting starts they all slowly begin to point in the same direction, similar to molecules alligning in a magnetic field. Also, immediately after the meeting one can expect individual quakers to continue to think similarly just as a ferromagnet will mainain its properties a while after it has been alligned. And just as quakers need consistand and frequent meetings to maintain a similar direction, so do ferromagnets. Although I will add that the time scales for quakers and ferromagnets are much different.
No comments:
Post a Comment