I would like to know if using two pairs of magnets with like poles side by side will strengthen the magnetic field. As I understand, placing a pair of magnetic bars with like poles side by side will dry off the magnetism of both magnets.
Can anyone help to provide some input on this?
Yes. Electricity and magnetism obeys something called the principle of superposition which means that the fields from different objects can just be added together to find the new, resulting field. This related question says more about why this happens.
A permanent bar magnet is produced when the magnetic fields of countless individual atoms are aligned inside a metal so that they superpose (add together) constructively to produce a stronger, macroscopic field. So adding to magnets together, in the same orientation, is an extension of the same idea.
Often, in practice, putting magnets together doesn't make a much stronger field, and that's because the magnetic fields from each separate magnet decrease in strength farther away from them --- so the added field isn't as strong as each individual field. If you placed 10 magnetics side-by-side, you probably wouldn't notice the enhancement from the ones farthest apart.
2 N poles placed side by side to each other, will almost double the strength. This is because the magnetic lines going in the same direction cannot cancel each other but reinforce each other. It can be easily demonstrated by inserting this arrangement into an aluminium loop and according to Lenz' Law, the loop will repel away from the incoming double magnet more strongly, compared to a single magnet. This is because there are twice the number of magnetic lines now cutting the aluminium ring.
