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[return to "Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?"]
1. harima+Mz[view] [source] 2020-04-27 00:02:35
>>qqqqqu+(OP)
I don't know if this would be my "one question" if I could ask the most brilliant minds in science, but something that always bothered me:

When I took physics they basically said "at first scientists were disturbed by the fact that magnets imply that two objects are interacting without any physical contact, but then Faraday came along and said 'the magnets are actually connected by invisible magnetic field lines' and that resolved everything."

How does saying "but what if there's invisible lines connecting them" resolve anything? To be clear, I'm not objecting to any of the actual electromagnetic laws or using field lines to visualize magnetic fields. It's just that I don't get how invoking invisible lines actually explains anything about how objects are able to react without physical contact.

(Also, it is not lost on me I that this question boils down to "fraking magnets, how do they work?")

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2. WhiteS+NC[view] [source] 2020-04-27 00:27:00
>>harima+Mz
I'm no expert in the matter, but I guess the problem is somewhat solved as the magnet then interacts with the field lines and these with the other magnet. It depends on how real you believe these invisible magnetic lines are. The magnetic field turned out to be a very real entity, as when it is perturbed these perturbations travel at the speed of light, and the second magnet feels them with a slight delay. The perturbations also manifest themselves as EM radiation/light.
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