femmestem OP t1_jef4th6 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 3:42 PM

Reply to comment by PerturbedHamster in ELI5: How are we able to direct narrow bands of magnetic fields like utility lines if Earth's magnetic field emanates outward from the core towards the atmosphere? by femmestem

This makes a lot of sense, thank you! I'm not specialized in physics, just a curious layman who learned about fields and then had a "hey, wait a minute..." moment. You made this explanation very accessible to me.

PerturbedHamster t1_jefn2sx wrote on March 31, 2023 at 5:40 PM

Glad you found it useful! You might enjoy looking at pictures of corona emission from power lines, which really let you see how strong the fields next to power lines are. The fields get so strong that they just rip electrons off of atoms, and you can see the glow as they combine back together. Wikipedia has some nice pictures here.