Oscillations of a dipole in a magnetic field: An experiment

The small oscillations of a parallelepidal magnet along the axis of a circular coil carrying an electric current have been analyzed theoretically and experimentally. The study of this system (a particular case of a magnetic dipole in motion in a nonuniform magnetic field) involves basic ideas from both mechanics and electromagnetism, and the equipment used in the experiment is very common in an undergraduate laboratory. Comparison with the experiment shows that a very simple theoretical approach gives good results. It is also shown how the introduction of some refinements in the physical model can improve the agreement between theory and experiment, though the theoretical analysis becomes more involved in this case. The use of the principle of superposition to calculate magnetic fields is emphasized throughout the article.