Is a diamagnet the “opposite” of a magnet? If so, then the anwer is no.
There is no dipolar attraction force with diamagnetism at all - for reasons
that are not well understood other than the obvious lack of poles..
In one sense, you could ask “why do force fields such as diamagnetism always
repel and never attract”?
Here is a simple visual test showing that indeed there is a slight repelling
effect even with water which is slightly diamagnetic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqOTJOJSoU
I would like to see this done with a large chunk of bismuth instead of a PM.
The repel would be less but the assumption is that it is there.
The larger question is this – since magnetism is dipolar, and diamagnetism is
its opposite, why is symmetry lost and diamagnetism is never dipolar?
From: H LV
Coulomb's law -- like the notion of absolute zero -- is based on an
extrapolation.
It is possible that the rule of repulsion between like charges and the rule of
attraction between opposite charges does not hold for very small scales.
Instead, suppose the relationship between certain charge combinations was the
net effect of two underlying attractive and repulsive tendencies.
Ordinarily for opposite charges this would manifest as a net attraction above a
certain distance and for similar charges as a net repulsion above a certain
distance. Below a certain distance opposite charges would become more repulsive
and similar charges would become more attractive.
This new rule would not alter the identity of the charge, i.e. it does not
violate charge conservation.
Harry
