Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ELECTRIC FIELD:
The electric field due to a charge Q at a point in space may be defined as the force that a unit positive charge
would experiences if placed at that point.
The charge Q which is producing the electric field is called a source charge and the charge q which tests the
effect of a source charge is called a test charge.
The source charge must remain at its original position however, if a charge q is brought at any point around Q,Q
itself is bound to experience an electrical force due to q and will tend to move.
MAGNTIC FIELD:
The space around a current carrying conductor, in which its magnetic effect can be experienced is called
magnetic field.
Moving charge or current produces magnetic field in the surrounding space.
A current or a field (electric or magnetic) emerging out of the plane of the paper is depicted by a dot
A current or a field (electric or magnetic) going into the plane of the paper is depicted by a cross
THEORY:
When current is passed through a conductor, it modifies the space around the conductor. If a magnetic pole is placed at
point near the conductor, the magnetic pole experience force due to the current carrying conductor. The force between
the magnetic pole and current carrying conductor may be visualized as a two step process. The current through the
conductor produces something in the space around the conductor, called magnetic field and the magnetic field exerts a
force on any magnetic pole placed in the field. The magnetic field has its own existence and is preventing even if there is
no magnetic pole experiences the force. The magnetic field due to a current carrying conductor falls off inversely as the
distance from the conductor.
The electric and magnetic fields differ from each other on the following accounts:
1. Whereas the source of electric field is electric charge (a scalar quantity), the source of magnetic field is current
element (a vector quantity). To elaborate the source of magnetic field is not a magnetic charge, the analogue of
electric charge. It is because; an isolated magnetic pole does not exist.
2. Further there is a qualitative difference between the lines of the electric field due to a charge distribution with
net charge and the lines of magnetic field due to a current distribution, whereas the line of electric field due to a
charge distribution starts from one point and end at the some other point, the lines of magnetic field due to a
current element start and end the same point i.e. they formed close loop.
The force on an electric charge is due to both of them can be written as‐
F= F electric + F magnetic
This force is given by H.A Lorentz’s due to this it is known as Lorentz Force.
If we look at the interaction with magnetic field we find the following features:
It depends on q, v and B. force on a negative charge is opposite to that on a positive charge.
The magnetic force q [v × B] includes the vector product of velocity and magnetic field. The vector
product makes the force due to magnetic field vanish (becomes zero) if velocity and magnetic field are
parallel or anti parallel. This force acts in (sideways) direction perpendicular to both the velocity and
magnetic field. Its direction is given by the screw rule or the right hand rule for vector or cross product.
The magnetic field is zero if charge is not moving (v =0) only a moving charge feels the magnetic field.
The unit of magnetic field is Tesla named after Nikola Tesla.
Tesla is a rather large unit. A smaller unit (non‐SI) is called gauss (=10‐4 tesla) is also often used.
The earth magnetic field is around 3.6 × 10‐5 tesla