Question

If you carry out an experiment to find the pattern of magnetic field lines due to a bar
magnet using iron filings, you’ll find that the filings arrange themselves in nearly concentric circles
with spaces between them. What is the reason for this spacing between them? Doesn’t magnetic field
exist in the region between them?

Answer 1

The spacing between field lines is not meaningful (though some engineers speak of "density of magnetic field lines" to describe a quantity commonly known as "flux density.") Suppose you draw two field lines of the Earth, reaching Earth 1 meter or 1 foot apart. Each can have electrons or ions trapped around it. The meaningful question is what is the radius of the circle these electrons or ions describe around their guiding line, and that depends on their energy, and how strong the field is (the circle gets larger in the weak fields far from Earth), but it is generally much more than 1 foot or 1 meter. No problem: densities are so low that such ions or electrons rarely collide, and their orbits can easily overlap. The radius of gyration of auroral electrons can be 100 meters, which is why auroral "curtains"are so thin. On the other hand, solar wind ions entering near the "nose" of the magnetosphere have radii of the order of 500 kilometers, or (say) 350 miles, because the field there is much weaker, and that is therefore the order of the expected thickness of the magnetopause, the boundary between the solar wind and the magnetosphere." From By David P. Stern.