Field Patterns: Wire, Loop, Solenoid

Also called

magnetic field lines · field around a straight wire · right-hand thumb rule · Maxwell's corkscrew rule · circular loop field · solenoid · electromagnet · bar magnet field · compass needle · Oersted experiment · north pole · south pole · magnetic effect of current · concentric circles · चुंबकीय क्षेत्र · दक्षिण-हस्त अंगुष्ठ नियम · परिनालिका · चुंबकीय क्षेत्र रेखाएँ

Topics

• A current-carrying conductor produces a magnetic field around it, as Oersted found with a compass needle.
• Around a straight wire the field lines are concentric circles; they grow further apart as the field weakens.
• Right-hand thumb rule: grip the wire with the thumb along the current; the fingers curl in the field direction.
• Field lines of a current loop circle each side of the wire and run nearly straight through the loop's centre.
• Inside a solenoid the field lines are parallel and uniform; outside, they loop round like a bar magnet's.
• One end of a solenoid behaves as a north pole and the other as a south pole.
• Reversing the direction of the current reverses the field and swaps the solenoid's poles.
• A compass needle sets itself along the field line through its position, north tip pointing the way the field goes.

About this model

A GLB file of about 585 KB, shown in Lably's 3D viewer and, on a phone, placed in your room with AR. Credit: Model, science and animation: Lably (built procedurally with three.js; no downloaded meshes). | CC BY 4.0. Original geometry and animation made for Lably.

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