So I have these ball magnets -- why do they do this...?

Question

I have 10 small ball magnets, and after playing with them and some others I have, I have noticed some weird things. One thing iss when I line the magnets up in two rows of 5, like this (and I will give them numbers so I can identify certain ones later) :

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

(6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

So they are arranged like this the formation is almost perfect, in those rows/columns of 2, except the pair 2&7 don't touch. When I push them together, the pair 4&9 separate, and so on, so that one pair out of 2&7 and 4&9 are not touching. Why is this?

Answer 1

Small magnet aligns itself along the lines of force of big magnet, Even equal sized magnets , too align on each other's magnetic lines. Magnetic lines are shaped not in straight lines, but curved instead, bunching into the pole area rapidly. Only in the mid part of a bar magnet, lines follow horizontally (parallel to the axis of magnet). So, contrary to normal expectation the magnets in your experiment take a curved alignment.