If heat destroys magnetism, why doesn’t the heat inside Earth destroy its magnetic field?
• Magnetic fields are generated by the movement of electrical charges in a process called electromagnetic induction. A single electron orbiting the nucleus of an atom generates only a weak magnetic dipole. For a piece of solid material to be a permanent magnet on a macro-scale, the dipoles need to align, which is what happens in materials like iron and nickel. However, when the material is heated above a certain temperature, the Curie temperature, thermal vibration of the atoms starts to push the dipoles out of…
