Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Magnetic Effect of Electric Current
- Magnetic Field Pattern: Current-Carrying Wire
- Magnetic Field Direction: Current-Carrying Wire
- Summary
- What’s Next?
In the last segment, we learnt about the magnetic effects of electric current. In this segment, we are going to learn about the magnetic field pattern and magnetic field direction in a current-carrying wire.
Magnetic Effect of Electric Current
We know that a current-carrying wire produces a magnetic field around the wire. This makes the wire a temporary magnet and thus the needle of the compass kept near it aligns itself in the direction of the magnetic field.
Magnetic Field Pattern: Current-carrying Wire
The magnetic field lines form concentric circles around a current-carrying straight wire. This can be easily verified with an experiment.
If this wire is allowed to pass through the cardboard sheet and some iron filings are sprinkled around the wire then these filings arrange themselves in concentric circles with the wire as the centre.
Magnetic Field Pattern