"See" a Magnetic Field
Cover the permanent magnet with the cardboard or paper. Sprinkle iron filings on the paper. Tap the paper and note the pattern formed. Strings or lines of filings pass from one pole of the magnet to the other. The area covered by the filings is the center of the magnetic field. To remember this, you might compare the magnetic lines of force that arrange the iron filings to the contour strips in a farmer's field.
This magnetic field is one of the important things in our everyday life with electricity. If it were not for the magnetic field, we would not have electric motors. Telephones, radios, television, and many other things we use every day also depend on this magnetic field.
Figure 1