Chapter -13

Magnetic Effects of
Electric Current

Magnet: Magnet is an object that attracts objects made of iron, cobalt and nickel.
Magnet comes to rest in North – South direction, when suspended freely.

Uses of magnets:

• in refrigerators.
• in radio and stereo speakers.
• in audio and video cassette players.
• in children’s toys
• on hard discs and floppies of computers.

Properties of magnets:

→ A free suspended magnet always points towards the north and south direction.
→ The pole of a magnet which points toward north direction is called north pole or
north-seeking.
→ The pole of a magnet which points toward south direction is called south pole or
south seeking.
→ Like poles of magnets repel each other while unlike poles of magnets attract
each other.

Magnetic field: The area around a magnet where a magnetic force is experienced is
called the magnetic field. It is a quantity that has both direction and magnitude.

Magnetic field and field lines: The influence of force surrounding a magnet is
called magnetic field. In the magnetic field, the force exerted by a magnet can be
detected using a compass or any other magnet.
The magnetic field is represented by magnetic field lines.

The imaginary lines of magnetic field around a magnet are called field line or field line
of magnet. When iron fillings are allowed to settle around a bar magnet, they get
arranged in a pattern which mimicks the magnetic field lines. Field line of a magnet can
also be detected using a compass. Magnetic field is a vector quantity, i.e. it has both
direction and magnitude.

Direction of field lines: Outside the magnet, the direction of magnetic field line is
taken from North pole to South Pole. Inside the magnet, the direction of magnetic field
line is taken from South pole to North pole.

Strength of magnetic field: The closeness of field lines shows the relative strength
of magnetic field, i.e. closer lines show stronger magnetic field and vice – versa.
Crowded field lines near the poles of magnet show more strength.

Properties of magnetic field lines:

− They do not intersect each other.

− It is taken by convention that magnetic field lines emerge from North pole and
merge at the South pole. Inside the magnet, their direction is from South pole to
North pole. Therefore, magnetic field lines are closed curves.

Magnetic field lines due to current a current carrying straight conductor

♦ A current carrying straight conductor has magnetic field in the form of concentric
circles, around it.
♦ Magnetic field of current carrying straight conductor can be shown by magnetic
field lines.
♦ The direction of magnetic field through a current carrying conductor depends
upon the direction of flow electric current.
 ♦ Let a current carrying conductor be suspended vertically and the electric current
is flowing from south to north. In this case, the direction of magnetic field will be
anticlockwise. If the current is flowing from north to south, the direction of
magnetic field will be clockwise.
♦ The direction of magnetic field, in relation to direction of electric current through
a straight conductor can be depicted by using the Right-Hand Thumb Rule. It is
also known as Maxwell’s Corkscrew Rule.

Right-Hand Thumb Rule: If a current carrying conductor is held by right hand,

keeping the thumb straight and if the direction of electric current is in the direction of
thumb, then the direction of wrapping of other fingers will show the direction of
magnetic field.

Maxwell’s corkscrew law: if the direction of forward movement of screw shows the
direction of the current, then the direction of rotation of screw shows the direction of
magnetic field.
Properties of magnetic field:

• The magnitude of magnetic field increases with increase in electric current and
decreases with decrease in electric current.
• The magnitude of magnetic field produced by electric current decreases with
increase in distance and vice – versa. The size of concentric circles of magnetic
field lines increases with distance from the conductor, which shows that magnetic
field decreases with distance.
• Magnetic field lines are always parallel to each other.
• No two field lines cross each other.

Magnetic field lines due to a current through a circular loop

The magnetic field lines would be in the form of iron concentric circles around every
part of the conductor. Since, magnetic field lines tend to remain closer when near to the
conductor, so the magnetic field would be stronger near the periphery of the loop. On
the other hand, the magnetic field lines would be distant from each other when we
move towards the center of the current carrying loop. Finally, at the center, the arcs of
big circles would appear as a straight line.
Magnetic field and number of turns of coil: Magnitude of magnetic field gets
summed up with increase in the number of turns of coil. If there are ‘n’ turns of coil,
magnitude of magnetic field will be ‘n’ times of magnetic field in case of a single turn of
coil.

Strength of magnetic field around a loop(coil) depends upon:

i) Radius of coil: The strength of the magnetic field is inversely proportional to

the radius of the coil. If the radius increases, the magnetic strength at the
center decreases
ii) Number of turns in the coil: As the number of turns in the coil increase, the
magnetic strength at the center increases, because the current in each
circular turn is having the same direction, thus, the field due to each turn adds
up.
iii) Strength of current flowing in the coil: As the strength of the current
increases, the strength of three magnetic fields also increases.

Magnetic field due to a current in a Solenoid

Solenoid: Coil with many circular turns of insulated copper wire wrapped closely in the
shape of a cylinder.

o A current carrying solenoid produces similar pattern of magnetic field as a bar

magnet
o One end of solenoid behaves as the north pole and another end behaves as the
south pole.

o Magnetic field lines are parallel inside the solenoid, similar to a bar magnet,
which shows that magnetic field is same at all points inside the solenoid.
o The strength of magnetic field is proportional to the number of turns and
magnitude of current.
 o By producing a strong magnetic field inside the solenoid, magnetic materials can
be magnetized. Magnet formed by producing magnetic field inside a solenoid is
called electromagnet.

Electromagnet: An electromagnet consists of a long coil of insulated copper wire

wrapped on a soft iron. Magnet formed by producing magnetic field inside a solenoid is
called electromagnet.

Force on a current carrying conductor in magnetic field

➢ A current carrying conductor exerts a force when a magnet is placed in its
vicinity. Similarly, a magnet also exerts equal and opposite force on the current
carrying conductor. This was suggested by Marie Ampere, a French Physicist and
considered as founder of science of electromagnetism.

➢ The direction of force over the conductor gets reversed with the change in
direction of flow of electric current. It is observed that the magnitude of force is
highest when the direction of current is at right angles to the magnetic field.

Fleming's Left-Hand Rule: If the direction of electric current is perpendicular to the

magnetic field, the direction of force is also perpendicular to both of them. The
Fleming’s Left Hand Rule states that if the left hand is stretched in a way that the index
finger, the middle finger and the thumb are in mutually perpendicular directions, then
the index finger and middle finger of a stretched left hand show the direction of
magnetic field and direction of electric current respectively and the thumb shows the
direction of motion or force acting on the conductor

Many devices, such as electric motor, electric generator, loudspeaker, etc. work on
Fleming’s Left Hand Rule.

Domestic Electric Circuits

• We receive electric supply through mains supported through the poles or cables.
In our houses, we receive AC electric power of 220 V with a frequency of 50 Hz.
• The 3 wires are as follows:
i) Live wire – (Red insulated, Positive)
ii) Neutral wire – (Black insulated, Negative)
iii) Earth wire – (Green insulated) for safety measure to ensure that any leakage
of current to a metallic body does not give any serious shock to a user.

Short Circuit: Short-circuiting is caused by the touching of live wires and neutral wire
and sudden a large current flow

It happens because:

▪ damage of insulation in power lines.

▪ a fault in an electrical appliance.

Over-loading of electric circuit: The overheating of electrical wire in any circuit due to
the flow of a large current through it is called overloading of the electrical circuit.

A sudden large number of current flows through the wire, which causes overheating of
wire and may cause fire also.

Electric Fuse: protective device used for protecting the circuit from short-circuiting
and overloading. It is a piece of thin wire of material having a low melting point and high
resistance.
• Fuse is always connected to live wire.
• Fuse is always connected in series to the electric circuit.
• Fuse is always connected to the beginning of an electric circuit.
• Fuse works on the heating effect.