Fields of Rings and Coils

Field of a Single Ring

A single current-carrying wire wrapped in a circle has fields that point straight up
perpendicular to the plane of the ring. The field is also similar to the field of a
magnet.

Right-hand rule - a hand mnemonic that physicist use to help remember the direction
of magnetic forces

Field of a Solenoid

Solenoid - a cylindrically shaped object created by a wire coiled in a helical pattern. It

can be seen as the superposition of a large number of rings.

The field of a solenoid has a shape similar to that of a ring, but appears more
“stretched”, as a result of the cylindrical shape of the object. The longer the solenoid,
the greater the magnitude of the magnetic field.

Current Sheet

Current sheet - an electric current that is confined to a surface, rather than being
spread through a volume of space.

Magnetic field of an infinite current sheet

An infinite current sheet can be modelled as an infinite number of parallel wires all
carrying the same current. Assuming each wire carries current I, and there are N
wires per unit length, the magnetic field can be derived using Ampère's law.