On the North and South Poles of Magnetic Field

Traditional physics teaching takes the image of north and south magnetic poles and magnetic field lines as the starting point for understanding magnetic phenomena. This approach easily causes conceptual confusion. People may regard artificially drawn magnetic field lines as the objective ontology of magnetic field, treat north and south magnetic poles as the source of magnetic field, or mistakenly classify magnetic field into the same level as compensatory force field. This paper clarifies through microscopic disturbance of moving charges that the real physical form of magnetic field is concentric circular vortex field generated by moving charges. Magnetic field lines are artificial geometric auxiliary lines connected by tangent directions of vortex. They are not entities existing in space. North and south magnetic poles are not underlying physical reality. They are macroscopic collective representation emerging after massive microscopic vortex magnetic fields are superimposed in an ordered manner. Similar to surface tension and crystal lattice, they belong to secondary emergent effects. Iron filings arrangement and pointing direction of small magnetic needles only reflect local tangent direction and cannot be equated with concentric circular vortex field itself. Definition of field. A field is a spatial range where force can act across distance. Strong force field electric field and gravitational field are three major compensatory force fields formed after energy transforms into matter. The field intensity of strong force field decays inversely proportional to the square of distance with additional exponential attenuation. Electric field and gravitational field follow the attenuation law of inverse square of distance. Magnetic field does not belong to the level of compensatory force field. It is a secondary field induced after charges move. Magnetic field is concentric circular vortex field generated by moving charges. Its field intensity decays inversely proportional to the first power of distance. They are at different levels. Field itself is not physical object. The effective range of field can theoretically extend outward infinitely. Field intensity continuously decreases with the increase of distance. Field intensity approaches zero at sufficient distance. This paper clarifies the causal levels of concentric circular vortex magnetic field ontology geometric representation of magnetic field lines and macroscopic magnetic pole representation. It distinguishes three major compensatory force fields and secondary magnetic field. It corrects reversed cognition and establishes a vortex magnetic field image more consistent with physical reality.