Published In

American Journal of Physics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2002

Subjects

Magnetic fields -- Mathematical models, Electric current -- Effect of magnetic fields on

Abstract

It is often implied that the force density formula dF/dV = JXB is all that is required to calculate the force that would be experienced by any stationary current-carrying medium in a region of space containing a magnetic field. However, representations of this formula are not all compatible, and the methods of applying such formulas when the conductor or surrounding medium have permeabilities different from vacuum are not widely known. The simplest case that one might consider is that of a current-carrying wire in an otherwise uniform field. It appears that the experimental measurements corresponding to such a situation have not been carried out for permeable media, and these results are reported here. The permeability and current can cause substantial changes in the field distribution from its background form, but the total force per unit length on the wire remains compatible with the formula IXB0, with I being the conduction current and B-0 being the flux density that was present before the permeable current-carrying wire was introduced.

Rights

Copyright 2002 American Association of Physics Teachers. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Description

The following article appeared in American Journal of Physics, 70(2), 163-168; and may be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1424265

DOI

10.1119/1.1424265

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/8240

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