Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to And what exactly is magnetic flux made of?

To first order
R.L. — (archived)

the question is not clear... sort of like 'What color are electrons?'-

If I say magnetic flux is the the amount of magnetic field passing through a given area does that really help?

The problem is that we have evolved seeing the macroscopic visible world... to try to understand the quantum world we make up analogies to the real world- these will ALWAYS be flawed to say the least... the closest we will come to perfect representation is when we can describe something, without approximations, purely mathematically- but that isnt terribly viscerally, is it?

When I imagine an electron 'at rest' in a vacuum I imagine an expanding sphere of probability- When I imagine charged particle confined in a magnetic bottle I imagine them circling magnetic field lines- When I imagine charged particles moving in an electric potential I imagine them rolling over hills and valleys...

These are convienient approximations that I have found help me to conceptualize what is happening- they capture some of the gross details, that is all... they arent reality. This does not mean that such approximations cannot be extremely powerful tools. They allow you to visualize approximately will happen under certain conditions, and when solving problems allow you to throw out ideas that clearly wont work... however it can be dangerous if you accept your approximations too seriously- reality can surprise you.

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