In the previous chapter we have learned that moving charges or electric
currents produce magnetic fields This discovery, which was made in the
early part of the nineteenth century is credited to Oersted, Ampere, Biot
and Savart, among others In the present chapter, we take a look at magnetism as a subject in its
own right Some of the commonly known ideas regarding magnetism are:
(i)
The earth behaves as a magnet with the magnetic field pointing
approximately from the geographic south to the north