one pole

[claymore]

Will it ever be possible to construct a single pole magnet and what would be practical applications of such a device?

[beso]

Magnetism is caused by circulating electrical currents at very small scale. A single pole magnet is a little like the famous Bhuddist question about the sound of one hand clapping.

Having said that, some theories of the nature of reality predict magnetic monopoles, bizare anomolaies in space time that you really wouldn't want to meet.

[ChuckFickens]

guess that halbach arrays are close in that they only have a magnetic field on one side. (though it is kinda cheating)

[fo3nix]

In addition, Maxwell's equations suggest not ;)

div B = 0

If a magnetic monopole is found, the founders will almost certainly get Nobel prizes.

[Symmetryigr8]

The most useful model physicists have for the universe is called the Standard model, this successfully predicts a lot of things in nature, fusion, fission, masses of particles and decay laws. The standard model is very effective at joining all the bits of physics we know to be true together and interlinking them. However two of the big problems are that it predicts the decay of protons and the existence of magnetic monopoles.
The answer to this question will either confirm a large proportion of current scientific understanding or cause physicists to have a rethink of how everything joins.

[Muppit]

Metal detection could benefit from a monopole! Often when trying to locate buried objects, the effective sensitive range of the detector is reduced by metallic objects closer to the top / back of the detector head than the target object - the 'noise' . A directional metal detector head would be very useful!

Please let me know when you come up with one!

[Muppit]

Please excuse 'the noise'!