Introductory Physics II

Chapter 28 – part 1
Electricity produces magnetism; Biot-Savart law
Magnetic field around moving charges and
conductors

Lecture 17 – March 21
 Chapters 27, 28 and 29
General Map

Electric
Charge

Magnetic
field

Currents
Outline of chapter 28
➢ Magnetic field of a current carrying conductor
Straight wire
Circular loop
Solenoid (long, helical coil)
Infinitesimal Element (Biot-Savart law)
➢ Force between two straight conductors
➢ Ampere’s law
➢ Magnetic field of a moving charge

New concepts/quantities

• Integral along a path (used in Ampere’s law)

 Magnetic Field of a Straight Wire

“Infinite wire” – we calculate the magnetic field

near the wire, at distances (r) much smaller than
the length of the wire (L).

𝑟
≪1
𝐿 𝑟Ԧ
The field has cylindrical symmetry: the value
depends only on the distance from the wire (r).
The field lines are circles concentric with the wire.

𝜇0 𝐼 I – current through the wire

𝐵= 𝜇0 - magnetic permeability of vacuum
2𝜋𝑟 (eois the electric permittivity)

0 = 4 × 10–7 T·m/A. 4
 Magnetic Field of a Straight Wire
the direction of the field

• The right-hand rule gives the

direction of the magnetic
field lines.
• Point the thumb along the
current direction and the
fingers of the right -hand curl
in the direction of the
magnetic field.

Remember: a compass needle (magnetic dipole) tends to be tangent to the field lines.
The arrow on the filed line (or the direction of the vector 𝐵) indicates the N pole. 5
 Magnetic Field of two (or more) Wires

The two magnetic fields

B2 are added as vectors (using
B1 components, for example).

r1 r2
I1 I2

The fields due to each wire are:

𝜇0 𝐼1 𝜇0 𝐼2
𝐵1 = 𝐵2 =
2𝜋𝑟1 2𝜋𝑟2
7
Force between Two Parallel Currents

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 Force between Two Parallel Currents

𝜇0 𝐼𝑎
Ba (at ib due to ia ): 𝐵𝑎 =
Bb 2𝜋𝑑
Ib
We have a wire carrying current Ib, in the
Ia magnetic field Ba.
Fab Fba The magnetic force on this wire is
Ba
L – length of the wire b
𝐹𝑏𝑎 = 𝐼𝑏 𝐿𝐵𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 The angle is 90o.
d

𝜇0 𝐼𝑎 𝐼𝑏 𝜇0 𝐼𝑎 𝐼𝑏
𝐹𝑏𝑎 =𝐿 Or, per unit length of wire, 𝐹𝑏𝑎 =
2𝜋𝑑 2𝜋𝑑

The force Fab is equal in magnitude with the force Fba.

 Force between Two Parallel Currents

• Currents in the same direction: the two wires attract each other
• Currents in opposite directions: the two wires repel each other.

𝐹Ԧ12 𝐹Ԧ13

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 Practice Question

• The figure shows three

long, parallel, current-
 carrying wires.
• The arrow labeled F
represents the net
magnetic force acting
on current I3.
F13
• The three currents have
equal magnitudes.
• What is the direction of
F23
the current I2?

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 Biot-Savart law
The field of a “small” piece of wire
The magnetic field at P due to
a small element of the current
distribution is

This is the Biot-Savart law.

Note: The denominator is r3 and not r2 due to r in the numerator

being a vector not a unit vector. 12
 Magnetic Field of a Circular Arc

From the Biot-Savart law,

𝑑 𝑙Ԧ

the field at C due to a small segment is

𝜇0 𝑖 𝑑𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑛900
𝑑𝐵 =
4𝜋 𝑅2

From the vector cross-product, this is out of the paper.

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 Magnetic Field of a Circular Arc

𝑑 𝑙Ԧ
From the diagram dl = R d.
𝑅
𝜇0 𝑖 𝑑𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑛900 𝜇0 𝑖 𝑅𝑑𝜙
𝑑𝐵 = 𝑑𝐵 =
4𝜋 𝑅2 4𝜋 𝑅2

𝜇0 𝑖 𝜙2
𝐵= න 𝑑𝜙
4𝜋 𝑅 𝜙1

𝜇0 𝑖 Φ The magnetic field in the center of circular arc of radius R and

𝐵= angle 𝜙
4𝜋𝑅
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 Magnetic Field of a Circular Arc

This is the field at the

centre of a circular arc.
𝜇0 𝑖 Φ
𝐵=
4𝜋𝑅

For a full circle  = 2 and the

field at the centre of a circular loop
is

𝜇0 𝑖
𝐵= The magnetic field in the center of circular loop of radius R.
2𝑅
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 Ampère’s Law - introduction

𝜇0 𝑖
𝐵=
2𝜋𝑅

𝐵(2𝜋𝑅) = 𝜇0 𝑖
R
2𝜋𝑅 – length of the loop of radius R
i – current inside the loop

This relationship can be generalized for any shape of the loop and for non-
uniform field.
 Ampère’s Law

Calculate the line integral

around a closed path called an

Amperian loop.

ienc is the net current encircled by the loop.

The circle on the integral sign indicates that it
is an integral along a closed loop.

The integral can also be written as

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 Ampère’s Law – sign of the currents

• We use the right hand rule as shown.

• Curl the fingers of the right hand in the direction of the path.
• Currents pointing in the direction of the thumb are positive.
• Currents pointing in the opposite direction are negative.
• Hence ienc = i1 – i2 and i3 is not inside the loop so it is not included in the integral.

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 Ampère’s Law

• How come that i3 has no contribution?

• After all, it does produce a magnetic field at all points of the loop.
• Some lengths contribute positively and some negatively and the net effect is
zero.
• This is somewhat similar to Gauss’s law for electrostatics.
• A charge situated outside a closed surface the flux is positive for some areas
of the surface and negative for the others and the total flux is zero.

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 Ampere’s law applications
Field outside a long straight wire
• We already know the result. We can
find it the “hard way”, by integration
of Biot-Savart law.
• The integral on a circular Amperian
loop is much simpler because of
symmetry.
• The field is the same at all points on
the Amperian loop.

(i is positive by the right hand rule for the counter-clockwise integration.)

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 Ampere’s law applications
Field outside a long straight wire
We find again the result for the field of a
straight, infinitely long conductor

𝜇0 𝑖
𝐵=
2𝜋𝑟

• This is the field outside the wire. This is all we’ve got previously.
• What about the magnetic field inside the wire?
• Now we can use Ampere’s law to find the field inside the wire itself.
• And the calculation is very easy.
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 Ampere’s law applications
Field inside a long straight wire
We assume a uniform current density (valid
for DC )

𝑖 𝑖
𝑗= =
𝐴 𝜋𝑅 2
The current enclosed by the Amperian loop
(red circle) is:

𝑖 2
𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐 = 𝑗 𝜋𝑟 2 = 2𝑟
𝑅

i r2
2𝜋𝑟𝐵 = 𝜇0 𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐 = 𝜇0 2 Ampere’s law for the red Amperian loop.
𝑅

𝑖𝑟
𝐵 = 𝜇0
2𝜋𝑅2
 Summary
Field of a straight, infinite wire

Inside Outside

𝑖𝑟 𝜇0 𝑖
𝐵 = 𝜇0 𝐵=
2𝜋𝑅2 2𝜋𝑟
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 Summary
Field of a straight, infinite wire

R
𝑟
Magnetic Field

1/𝑟

0 5 10 15 20 25
Distance from Center
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 Field of a Solenoid
Another application of Ampere’s law

The picture shows the magnetic field due to a “very long” solenoid.
(Very long means L>>d)

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 Magnetic field of a solenoid
Numerical simulation results

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/544a8c3de4b03e16957ae263/54a1b635e4b0bef254f9c06b/54a702d0e4b0243cdd4da65f/1420231733500/Mag3D
01.jpg?format=750w
http://www.mare.ee/indrek/ephi/test6_lines_logcolor.jpg 26
 Field of a Solenoid

For a solenoid of infinite length,

one can assume
• that the field is zero
everywhere outside the
solenoid
• and is uniform everywhere
inside the solenoid.

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 Field of a Solenoid

Apply Ampere’s Law to the section of the ideal solenoid

shown above (The Amperian loop is the orange rectangle) .

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 Field of a Solenoid

For field uniform along the path.

• The first term is Bh since B is constant and along the direction of

integration.
• The second and fourth terms are 0 because B is perpendicular to the path
inside the solenoid and zero outside the solenoid.
• The third term is 0 because B is zero outside the solenoid.
 Field of a Solenoid

If there are n turns per unit length, the number of turns enclosed by the loop is
nh where all the currents are out of the paper and are positive in the sense of the
right hand rule round the path.

Hence ienc = i(nh).

ර 𝐵 ⋅ 𝑑 𝑠Ԧ = 𝜇0 𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐 𝑖𝑁
𝐵ℎ = 𝜇0 𝑖(𝑛ℎ) 𝐵 = 𝜇0 𝑖𝑛 = 𝜇0
𝐿
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