Magnetic Monopoles and Free Quarks

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A bar magnet is a magnetic dipole with a north pole and a south pole at its opposite ends. Can you cut the magnet to create isolated magnetic monopoles? Nobody has been able to do this yet: each part of the cut magnet develops new north and south poles, regenerating a new dipole. (However, some speculative extensions of the standard model do propose the existence of magnetic monopoles.) Moving the "separate monopoles or quarks" slider on the magnet graphic shows what happens when you pull a magnet apart.
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Contributed by: S. M. Blinder (July 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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"Magnetic Monopoles and Free Quarks"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/MagneticMonopolesAndFreeQuarks/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: July 18 2011