How do scientists know that the magnetic force doesn't continue an infinite distance from the magnet like gravity does? What if the magnetic force is just super duper weak one mile away from a magnet but it's still there?Also here's a funny thought. Take a fridge magnet or something. As you move it away from the fridge door, the magnetic force gets weaker but it's still pulling the itself toward the fridge. That must mean that there's a point in which the gravitational force between the fridge door and the magnet is equal to the magnetic force. How far would you need to take the magnet from the door to reach that point?
>>16939170>How do scientists know that the magnetic force doesn't continue an infinite distance from the magnet like gravity does?It does. The influence just approaches zero faster than gravity does. This is true for all forces. The strength of the force at close distances is directly proportional to how quickly that influence decreases as a function of distance.
>>16939269What about the second question. How far would you need to pull two attracting magnets from each other so that the magnetic force becomes so weak that it equals the gravitational force between them? That would be something like 0.0000000001 newtons assuming both magnets weigh 10 grams.
>>16939415Depends on the strength of your magnets. If you want an intuition here, gravity falls off at a rate of 1/(d^2). The force of a magnetic dipole drops at somewhere in the vicinity of 1/(d^4). They would cross over surprisingly quickly.
