Scientists Have Just Overturned a 300-Year-Old Law of Physics

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Here’s what you’ll learn by reading this story:

• Today, scientists do not find “laws” but rather perfect theories, they always know that there is more to learn.

• A new study shows why the centuries-old “laws” need to be changed, as the 300-year-old law of friction fails to predict the interaction between two magnetic materials.

• Understanding this physics-based exception can help improve small and nano-scale devices that rely on magnetic fields to function.

Today, scientists are not in the habit of creating “laws”. Of course, we still talk about the scientific progress of the past centuries as “laws,” chief among them being Isaac Newton’s laws of motion, among them. many others. But as science develops, we have learned that these laws cannot be broken. Newton’s laws of motion, for example, break down at extremes, which is where Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity comes into play.

Now a group of scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany has again proven why the word “theory,” which allows for some flexibility in future discoveries, has replaced “laws” in today’s scientific language. The law in question is Amonons first law of conflict. It is written by the French physicist Guillaume Amontons in this book Mechanical resistance in 1699, the concept is clear: “The force of friction is directly proportional to the applied load.” This simply means that a heavier object (say a bed) will cause higher friction than a lighter object (a chair). This is because the small deformation of the material increases when it meets heavy loads, which causes friction.

But in a new study published in the journal Natural Thingsresearchers have found that this rule breaks down when considering magnetic materials. In the experiment, the authors used two sets of components that rotate freely on top of the second magnetic layer. Although these materials are not in contact with each other, there is a measurable magnetic repulsion between the two.

“By changing the distance between the magnetic fields, we can drive the system into a regime of competing interactions where the rotors constantly rearrange themselves as they slide,” said Hongri Gu of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who wrote the research while at the University of Konstanz.

What the researchers found was that in the near and far regions, the friction was the least, but it was still there. increase medium distance. That’s because in these middle places, there is competition. For example, in the upper part of the magnet, the magnetic moments point in parallel but opposite directions, known as “antiparallel,” while the lower part flows in the same parallel direction. This unsteady transition causes increasing gravitational friction as materials must constantly switch between parallel and anti-parallel states.

“Ironically, the conflicts here are caused by internal restructuring,” Clemens Bechinger, project manager at the University of Konstanz, said in a press statement. “There’s no roughness, there’s no surface roughness, and there’s no direct contact.

Of course, this test was not done only proving that Amonons is not correct (after all, his laws work remarkably well under normal conditions), but any magnetic forces that appear in these macroscale conditions may occur under very small ones, which may unlock many micro- and even nanoelectromechanical devices, including magnetic bearings and atomically thin magnets.

Once again, science proves why there is no such thing as a “rule”—because there is always more to learn.

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