Given following setup of three wires in the plane of the page with I1 = 1.3 A (to the right), I2 = 3.4 A (to the right), I3 = 4.5 A(to the left) and each wire is separated by 3 m.I'm completely lost, I need to..1. What is the direction of the magnetic field at wire 3 due to wires 1 and 2?2. What is the direction of the force on wire 3 due to wires 1 and 2?Any help would really be appreciated! Thanks!
I assume that those wires are sitting parallel 3 m apart from one another. 1. The magnetic field around a wire forms concentric circles around the wire. Wire 1 and Wire 3 are parallel so when you draw a concentric field line around Wire 1 with radius 6 m, you get a magnetic field line passing Wire 3 at a right angle. And a concentric field line around Wire 2 with radius 3 m passes Wire 3 at a right angle. Both magnetic fields have the same direction because the current in both wires flows in the same direction (to the right). Using the right-hand rule, you can find that the magnetic field at wire 3 due to Wire 1 and Wire 2 goes into the page. Ans: Into the page 2. The force on a wire can be calculated in the following manner: I X B * L. Here I is the current on Wire 3, B is the magnetic field due to Wire 1 and Wire 2, L is the length of Wire 3, and X is the cross product operator. So I cross B would give the direction of the force. Now use the right-hand rule, I cross B will give the force direction pointing down. This means the force due to the magnetic field would repel Wire 3 from Wire 1 and Wire 2. Ans: The force on Wire 3 due to Wire 1 and Wire 2 would repel Wire 3 from them.
