Wow - now you deny that magnetic field lines are used in physics , Michael 
!
You spend an inordinate amount of time *misrepresenting* my actual statements. Christians (and most atheists around these parts) tend to at least *try* to be honest in the way they represent other peoples statements. You're one of the few exceptions. How do you justify such blatantly dishonest behavior?
Magnetic fields are a complete and full *continuum*.
Yep. In basic EM theory, when they describe "lines", they say the have no beginning and no ending. They have no source and no sink, therefore they don't "disconnect", nor "reconnect" to other lines.
Magnetic field lines are a way to map magnetic fields.
It's an oversimplifcation to use lines like that, just like we might use lines on topographical maps to designate changes in elevation. It doesn't mean that real lines exist on the ground at all those locations!
We use lines in a literal sense but only draw a small set of the infinite number of lines. They are actual lines representing the magnetic field.
Not Clinger. He tried to say they "begin and end" in the null as though the null has any "lines" in it to start with!
It's devoid of magnetic energy so it's a *null*.
They are the analogy of contour lines on a map.
Ya, but those contour lines on topographical maps don't "disconnect" or reconnect.
Even a child can understand this, Michael : no magnetic field = no magnetic field lines. In a region where B = 0, there are no forces on a charged test particles and there are no magnetic field lines.
A child know that if B=0 there *are no lines there in the first place*!
A null point is just a null point -and there no magnetic filed line can pass though it
.
Then they can't "Reconnect" in that null either! Doh!
The reconnection bit of MR comes when the magnetic filed changes which is described as the mapped field lines moving. They move across the null point.
No, they don't. If they did, it wouldn't be a Null. The "line strength" would be exactly zero in a null and they would still not "Begin" or "end" in the null.
And as you know...
- They break because there is no magnetic field at a null point.
I don't "know" any such thing. The field strength falls to zero and nothing "disconnects" or "reconnects' in that null.
They reconnect because there is a magnetic field away from the null point.
The field originates around the source of the magnetic field, and the topology of the *whole field* (not just the null) changes as a result of the change in current at the source. The lines don't have a beginning or an ending. They don't *start* anywhere, certainly not in a null. They don't *end* anywhere, certainly not in a null. They don't *disconnect from*, nor reconnect to any other magnetic lines.
FYI, Michael, I do not really agree with the term reconnection because as an ex-theoretical physics I know about magnetic field lines.
No you don't. You know magnetic fields like you know electrical discharges in plasma, as is not at all.
But we are stuck with magnetic reconnection as the label for this phenomena (and I cannot think of a more precise term - "magnetic field reconfiguration around a null point" is just too long!)
None of that is actually true RC. The *reconnection* process is a process *in plasmas*. It results in the release of stored magnetic field energy *into* particle acceleration. It's a process of *energy release/transfer*. Without any charged particles to his name, Clinger could never *hope* to transfer any magnetic field energy into particle movement. All he demonstrated was variable magnetic fields in a vacuum *without* any "reconnection" in plasma.
Neither one of you have actually read a plasma physics textbook, so both of you are ignorant by choice. When did you intend to rectify that problem RC?
