If you had a magnet and iron ball they should but I don't think you can make a magnet that has only one charge.

EDIT:

At least not easily

I didn't get the perpendicular force part, but having two objects which attract each other you can (in theory) set up an orbital system. Magnetism, electric charge, etc.
Whether you can set this up in real life I don't know though. You could quite easily write a computer simulation since for two bodies the equations are simple, based only the the position, velocity & mass of each body and the constants defining the attractive force.

Quote:Original post by AndreTheGiant
The force of magnetism is many many orders of magnitude stronger than gravity, so I wouldnt assume this experiment would work the same as to planets orbiting eachother. If anything, you would have to make them orbit at a very precise distance and speed (probably very close and very fast, but I'm guessing), and the tinyest of changes to those parameters would cause them to crash together or fly apart.

If it were gravitational force, there are examples in nature of this already hapenning.

However, gravitation only works “one way” -- an object attracts everything around it. Magnetism can also repulse objects -- I can't think of a way that could make for a stable system of two orbiting magnets. That doesn't mean such a system cannot exist.

EDIT: Hm.. Imagine the two magnets, suppose they are the bar kind of magnets. They lie in one line, aligned so that their direct axes (parallel to their longest side) lie on this line that connects them. They are oriented so that one magnet's + pole is pointing towards the other magnet's - pole (they would attract each other if you just left them in this configuration).

Now you apply the force to one of the magnets. If their charges were equal, they would orbit the point that's in the centre of the line segment between the centres of the two magnets. Their attractive force would also make them rotate so that they keep aligned with their + and - poles facing each other.

If you have two magnets with different charges, the centre of the rotation would just shift towards the stronger one, but would still lie on the line connecting their centres.

Or at least I think so. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Quote:Original post by owl
Imagine this:
Two identical magnetized objects with different charge (say two pinball balls).

So-called Paul Dirac monopols? [smile]
Seems me,their force of attraction will be like 1/R^4 for common magnets...
For monopols will be 1/R^2 as usual.

[Edited by - Krokhin on January 11, 2009 1:14:17 AM]

You guys are confused. There is no such thing as a magnetic charge. There is electric charge, but magnetism has nothing to do with charge distribution. Magnetism is caused by currents distribution. The magnetic field produced by magnets is due to the spin of electrons that tend to align in these materials (and act like tiny current loops).

A simpler setup to consider would involve electrically charged spheres of opposite polarity. These could theoretically orbit one another given they are in vacuum and have an appropriate initial velocity, since the equation for the electrostatic force has essentially the same form as that for gravity.

Quote:Original post by Hedos
You guys are confused. There is no such thing as a magnetic charge.

May be owl,not me[smile]