PHYS 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 20: Electric Current, Galvanometer, Mass Spectrometry

• School: McGill University
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHYS 102
• Professor: Nick Provatas

Document Summary

A magnet has two poles, north and south. The north poles is that end which points toward geographic north when the magnet is free suspended. Like poles of two magnets repel each other, whereas unlike poles attract. We can imagine that a magnetic field surrounds every magnet. The si unit for magnetic field is the tesla (t). For example, the lines of magnetic field due to a current in a straight wire form circles around the wire, and the field exerts a force on magnets (or currents) or it. Force on an electric current in a magnetic field; definition of b. A magnetic field exerts a force on an electric current. For a straight wire of length carrying a current , the force has magnitude: Where is the angle between the magnetic field b and the current. The direction of the force is perpendicular to the current-carrying wire and to the magnetic field, and is given by a right-hand rule.