User:SteffenB/Magnetic Ordering

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[edit] magnetic ordering vs. magnetic order

Hi Wikipedians,

in the English Wikipedia I came across the term «magnetic ordering» in two different forms,
magnetic ordering:

magnetic order:

Intuitively I would use the term magnetic ordering rather than magnetic order. The first one sounds more familiar to me. But as I'm no native speaker I wouldn't bet on it. So I would welcome your statement concerning the conventional English term! --SteffenB 11:25, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi SteffenB,

Although I wrote the article on superparamagnetism, I am not really an expert in the field of magnetism and would defer to anyone with more knowledge than myself. I don't know that the web is any indication of what is correct, but a quick search of google indicates that both terms are used abundantly. Both terms appear in peer reviewed journals, such as Nature, and on websites run by the AIP (American Institute of Physics). I would guess that both terms are correct, but have slightly different meanings, the subtleties of which, I am not really qualified to describe. In my mind, "magnetic ordering" refers to the specific arrangement (ordering) of magnetic dipoles, whereas "magnetic order" refers more generally to the concept that some degree of correlation exists without necessarily implying the specific nature of that correlation. However, as I am not an expert I would welcome anyone else's comments clarifying the matter. --Matt Stoker 21 APR 2004



[edit] Background

It might be of some interest to add the type of magnetic ordering (PM/DM/FM/AFM/SDW/etc.) of elements in the solid state to the periodic table of elements. But in order to do soSee: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Elements