DOHA MODERN INDIAN SCHOOL

GRADE 12 PHYSICS
MOVING CHARGES AND MAGNETISM
Oersted’s Experiment: This experiment demonstrates the magnetic effect of electric current.

 A deflection observed in the magnetic needle as sufficient current pass through the
conductor.

 The deflection is found to be reversed when the current reverses its direction through the
circuit.

 As the intensity of current increases the deflection of the needle also increases.

From the above observations, Oersted concluded that an electric current in a conductor
produces magnetic effect in the space around the conductor.

The magnetic field around the current carrying straight conductor

consists of concentric circles around the conductor in a plane
which is at right angles to the current carrying conductor.

Right Hand Thumb Rule: The direction of magnetic field around

the conductor can be determined by this rule. If a conductor
carrying current is imagined to be held in the right hand such

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that the thumb points in the direction of current, then the tip of the
curled fingers encircling the conductor represents the direction of
magnetic field lines.

Force Experienced by a charge in magnetic field:

• Consider a charge ‘q’ moving with velocity ‘v’ in a magnetic

field ‘B’, then the force experienced by the charge is given by ,

𝐹 = 𝐵𝑞v𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 -------- (1)

In vector form, 𝐹̅ = 𝑞(v̅ 𝑋 𝐵̅) ------- (2)

The direction of the magnetic force is given by Right hand thumb rule.

The direction of magnetic force is always perpendicular to the plane containing ‘v̅’ and ‘𝐵̅’.

• If the charge is at rest in the magnetic field, v=0 then no magnetic force is experienced
by the charge.

• No force is experienced by a charged particle moving parallel or anti-parallel to the

direction of the magnetic field (𝜃= 0 or 1800)

• If the charge moves at right angles to the magnetic field; then the charge experiences
maximum force, 𝐹𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝐵𝑞v

Definition of Magnetic Field:

𝐹 = 𝐵𝑞v𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 -------- (1)

𝐹
B=
𝑞v sin𝜃

 If q= 1C, v= 1m/s and 𝜃 = 900, B= 𝐹

M𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒂

𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄
𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅.

SI unit: tesla (T)

Definition of 1 tesla: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝟏 𝑻, 𝒊𝒇 𝟏𝑵

𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝟏 C o𝒇 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝟏 𝒎/𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕
𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅.

1 T = 1 N A-1 m-1

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Lorentz Force (F): When a charged particle having charge q moves in a region, where both
electric field 𝐸̅ and Magnetic Field 𝐵̅ exist, it experiences a net force called Lorentz force.

Lorentz Force, 𝐹̅ = 𝑞𝐸̅ + 𝑞(v̅ 𝑋 𝐵̅)

𝐹̅ = 𝑞(𝐸̅ + (v̅ 𝑋 𝐵̅))

• 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 v̅ 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝐵̅.

𝑯𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒛𝒆𝒓𝒐.

Force acting on a current carrying conductor placed in magnetic field:

Consider a conductor of length ‘l’ and area of cross section ‘A’ carrying current ‘I’ placed in a
uniform magnetic field ‘B’. The large number of free electrons
in the conductor move with drift velocity ′𝑣𝑑′ in the opposite
direction of conventional current. Let ‘n’ be the number of free
electrons per unit volume of the conductor.

The magnetic force acting on an electron is given by 𝑓𝑚̅ = −𝑒

(v̅𝑑 𝑋𝐵̅)

Total no. of electrons = n A l

Total force on all the electrons, 𝐹̅ = 𝑛𝐴𝑙 𝑓𝑚̅ = −𝑒 n A l(v̅𝑑 𝑋𝐵̅)

𝐹̅ = −(n e A l v̅𝑑 𝑋𝐵̅)

𝐹̅ = 𝐼 (𝑙 ̅ 𝑋𝐵̅)

[since nAevd = I]

Magnitude of the force is given by F = 𝐼𝑙𝐵𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃

Where, 𝜃 is the angle between current direction and magnetic field direction.

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 ‘𝑙’ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ‘𝐵′.

• 𝐼𝑓 𝜃 = 00 𝑜𝑟 1800, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒.

• 𝐼𝑓 𝜃 = 900 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 F=
𝐵𝑖𝑙.

In this case, the direction of force is given by Fleming’s left hand rule

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Motion of a Charged particle in uniform magnetic field:

When charge ‘q’ is moving with velocity ‘v’ in a magnetic field ‘B’, then the force experienced by
the charge is given by,

𝑭 = 𝑩𝒒v𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜽.

 Case I: When the particle is moving parallel or antiparallel to the magnetic field, the
charged particle does not experience any force.

When 𝜃 = 00 or 1800, F= 0

 Case II- When the charged particle moves at right angles to the magnetic field, the
particle will be moving in a circle of with constant speed.

The force acting on the charge ‘q’ due to the magnetic field is given by 𝐹 = 𝐵𝑞v sin 90 = 𝐵𝑞v

The force is always perpendicular to the direction of motion of the

particle as well as the magnetic field. I.e., the path of the charged particle
is circular.

Radius of the circular path

 If ‘m’ be the mass of the charged particle and ‘r’ be the radius of
the circular path, then the necessary centripetal force required by
𝑚v2
the particle to move in a circular path is given by F= ------- (1)
𝑟

 The centripetal force is provided by the magnetic Lorentz force 𝐹 = 𝐵𝑞v ------ (2)

From (1) and (2), we can write

𝑚v2
= Bqv
𝑟

𝑚v
On simplifying we get, radius (r) = ------ (1)
𝑞𝐵

The radius of the circular path is directly proportional to the speed of the particle and mass of
the particle.

Time period& Frequency

𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
We know that, time period, T =
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑

𝑚v
2𝜋𝑟 2𝜋( 𝑞𝐵 )
T= =
v v

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 2𝜋𝑚
T= --------- (2)
qB

Frequency, f = 1/T
𝑞𝐵
f= -------- (3)
2𝜋𝑚

Clearly from eq (2) and (3), Time period and frequency is independent of the speed of the
particle and the radius of the circular path. It depends only on the magnetic field and nature of
the particle ( q/m).This principle is used to accelerate charged particles in cyclotron.

Angular Frequency (𝝎)

We know that, Angular frequency, 𝜔= 2𝜋𝑓

𝑞𝐵
𝜔= 2𝜋( )
2𝜋𝑚

𝑞𝐵
𝜔=
𝑚

This angular frequency is called gyro frequency and which doesn’t depend on the speed of the
particle. Thus all the charged particle takes the same time to complete the circular orbits of
small or large radius, provide their specific charge is same.

Case III- When the charged particle moves at an ‘𝜃′ to the

magnetic field other than 00 , 900or 1800 the resultant path of the
particle will be a helix.

Consider a charged particle of charge ‘q’ enter the region of

magnetic field ‘B’ with velocity ‘v’ at an angle ‘𝜃′.

The velocity ‘v’ can be resolved in to two components v𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 (vII)

parallel to the direction of B and v𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 (v⊥) perpendicular to the
direction of ‘B’.

The particle will be moving with constant velocity along the direction of field, as no force acts
on the charged particle when it moves parallel to the magnetic field.

Since the v𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 is perpendicular to the direction of B, the particle will be moving in a circular
path in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic field.

The resultant of these two motions will cause helical motion

𝑚v⊥ 𝑚v sin𝜃
Radius, r = =
𝑞𝐵 𝑞𝐵

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 2𝜋𝑚
T=
qB

𝑞𝐵
Frequency, f =
2𝜋𝑚

𝑞𝐵
Angular frequency, 𝜔 =
𝑚

Pitch of the Helix: The distance moved along the magnetic field in one rotation is called pitch
p.

p = v||T
2𝜋𝑚
p = (v cos 𝜃)
qB