Lenz's law - magnetic fields and Currents

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
5 replies · 2K views
kidi3
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Hey Pf..

I am trying to understand Lenz's law, but somehow it doesn't make sense.
In my book there is some checkpoints execise to test wheather you've understood what you read about, one those checkpoints looks like this.

http://snag.gy/NCNLh.jpg


I do understand why the current in situation a is the highest since the magnetic field is increasing will it never become zero, and in situation C will the current decrease until become constant (B=0)=> current =0.
But why should the current in situation B be as high as in situation A.. ?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
kidi3 said:
But why should the current in situation B be as high as in situation A.. ?
Take note of the direction of the magnetic field in each half of the loop.
 
It's both in and out.. but wouldn't the dec. part go to 0, and lead the B to become ½A..
I can see B would be as high as A in a short moment,should it not be ½A thereby lead B<A
 
kidi3 said:
It's both in and out.. but wouldn't the dec. part go to 0, and lead the B to become ½A..
No.

What matters is the change in the flux through each half of the loop.

In the top half (of B) which way does the field point? Since it's increasing, which way is the change in flux pointing?

Same question for the bottom half. Which way does the field point? Since it's decreasing, which way is the change in flux pointing?
 
Ah.. they all point in the same direction, and since change is equal to the one in situation A, they must be equal in magnitude..
 
kidi3 said:
Ah.. they all point in the same direction, and since change is equal to the one in situation A, they must be equal in magnitude..
Exactly. The change in flux through each half of B points in the same direction, just like it does in A.