Consider the following statements made by three students. Student I: “For a stra
ID: 1581667 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the following statements made by three students.
Student I: “For a straight wire to have a magnetic force acting on it, it only needs to be within a magnetic field.”
Student II: “For a straight wire to have a magnetic force acting on it, it only needs to be conducting current and within a magnetic field.”
Student III: “For a straight wire to have a magnetic force acting on it, the wire must be conducting current, within a magnetic field and cutting across the magnetic field.”
Which, if any, of these three students do you believe is correct? Explain fully why you chose as you did
Explanation / Answer
Student III is Right
For a straight wire to have a magnetic force acting on it, the wire must be conducting current, within a magnetic Field and cutting acreoss the magnetic Field
Reason: Magnetic Force is given by F = I (L X B), where L is length of wire and a vector pointing in the direction of current, and B is magnetic Field Vector. Therefore Current should be cutting the magnetic Field, else cross product will be zero, and Force will be zero