Talk:Dipole magnet

This page needs to be merged with Bending magnets What do you think? Scott 01:51, 29 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's done. ;) -- SCZenz 07:40, 29 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The title and topic don't match

Unless there's something big that I don't know, a dipole magnet is just a magnet with two poles, i.e. the field lines emerge at one end and come back at the other end. It has nothing specifically to do with particle accelerators, cathode ray tubes or any other application. --Smack (talk) 03:00, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Smack

Absolutely a dipole magnet is a bending or steering magnet specifically used on the beamline for particle beams in particle accelerators, they are numerously found in a particle accelerators. See pictures of dipole magnets on this article. Not to mention Quadrupole magnets; Octapoles, and Sextapoles yet to have an article on, but its coming as I just got pics. Hope that helps Scott 10:48, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, dipole magnet kind of means what you say, Smack. But the term is actually rather closely associated with its applications. What you describe might be better discussed on a page on magnetic dipole moment or something like that. That being said, probably a more general bit in the intro wouldn't hurt. -- SCZenz 14:39, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

User Smack is correct. A dipole magnet is simply a magnet that is a dipole. One use for dipole magnets is in particle accelerators, but that is by no means the only, or even the most common, use. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 15:54, 16 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I completely agree. As of September 2021, the article consists of

two sentences giving a general definition of a dipole magnet
a substantial section about bending magnets
a few other examples of a dipole magnet being used to deflect a particle beam
no mention of the many other uses of a simple magnet.

Yet most (all?) of the magnets people are familiar with in everyday life are dipole magnets—fridge magnets, magnets that hold cupboard doors shut, magnets on sticks for picking things up, horseshoe magnets and so on. It's an article about bending magnets and the deflection of charged particles by a magnetic field. I think the article needs moving back to bending magnet. Then if there's enough material about dipole magnets in general, dipole magnet can be a separate article which doesn't imply that they're mostly used in particle accelerators.

Musiconeologist (talk) 20:54, 4 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also I note that the dipole magnet illustrated in the introduction is exactly the wrong type for a particle accelerator, unless the beam is considered as passing through the body of the magnet (where no field lines are shown). The field of a bar magnet is anything but homogeneous. This in itself illustrates why the subjects should be separate, I think. Musiconeologist (talk) 14:54, 5 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]