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What happens to an electromagnet when the electric current is reversed?
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electromagnet
Figure 1: Elements of a solenoid
When the electric current flowing through an electromagnet is reversed, the polarity of the magnetic field produced by the device is also reversed.12
Because an electromagnet functions by generating a magnetic field through the flow of electric current in a coil, the orientation of the resulting magnetic poles—north and south—is directly dependent on the direction of that current. Consequently, if you reverse the current, the side of the coil that previously acted as a north pole will become a south pole, and vice versa.12