Question

Two bar magnets are placed on a smooth surface with their north and south poles facing each other. A student measures the force between the magnets as they move them farther apart from each other. The results are shown in the table.



Distance Between Magnets (cm) Strength of Magnetic Force (arbitrary units)
1.0 100
2.0 25
4.0 6
6.0 3




As the distance between the magnets increases, the magnetic force
stays the same
because
Choose...
.

Answer 1

As the distance between the magnets increases, the magnetic force decreases because the magnetic field (and thus the force) weakens with distance — the data show that doubling the separation reduces the force to about one-quarter, consistent with an inverse-square dependence.