Magnetic Scalar Potential
The scalar potential is another useful quantity in describing the magnetic field, especially for permanent magnets.
In a simply connected domain where there is no free current,
hence we can define magnetic scalar potential ψ as
Using the definition of H:
it follows that
Here ∇ • M acts as the source for magnetic field, much like ∇ • P as the source for electric field. So analogously to bound electric charge, the quantity
is called the bound magnetic charge.
If there is free current, one may subtract the contribution of free current per Biot-Savart law from total magnetic field and solve the remainder with the scalar potential method.
Read more about this topic: Magnetic Potential
Famous quotes containing the words magnetic and/or potential:
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology. The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom.”
—Murray Bookchin (b. 1941)