What Is the Magnetic Field at the Center of a Square Wire Loop?

In summary, the magnetic field at the center of the square wire loop is the sum of the 4 equal contributions coming from each side of the square.
  • #1
rothrock98
3
0
I've been stuck on this problem from a few hours now. It seemed much easier when I started it.

- A square wire loop has sides 2 meters long, with a current 5 amps circulating in the loop. What is the magnetic field at the exact center of the loop?

I was going the direction of the law of Biot and Savart and integrating to get B = u0/4pi * integral( I*dl x r(hat)/r^2)

I just can't seem to get anywhere, any ideas?
 
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  • #2
rothrock98 said:
I've been stuck on this problem from a few hours now. It seemed much easier when I started it.

- A square wire loop has sides 2 meters long, with a current 5 amps circulating in the loop. What is the magnetic field at the exact center of the loop?

I was going the direction of the law of Biot and Savart and integrating to get B = u0/4pi * integral( I*dl x r(hat)/r^2)

I just can't seem to get anywhere, any ideas?

Apply Biot-Savart-Laplace law correctly,takin into account that this problem admits symmetry.I state that the total magnetic field in the center of the loop is the sum of the 4 equal contributions coming from each side of the square.
The law is first given in the following mathematical formulation by Pierre Simon (Marquis de) Laplace:
[tex] d\vec{B}=\frac{\mu_{0}\mu_{r}I}{4\pi}\frac{d\vec{l}\times\vec{r}}{r^{3}} [/tex]
,where "r" is the distance from the origin (chosen to be the center of the square) to a line element of the conductor "dl".
[tex]
 
  • #3
Ok that clears some of it up thanks. Can dl be choosen to be any length?
 
  • #4
rothrock98 said:
Ok that clears some of it up thanks. Can dl be choosen to be any length?

No,not any.It is chosen as a vector line element along the side of the square with the sense equal to the sense of the current.
Integration by "dl" is made from 0 to "l",where "l" designates the length of the side of the square.
 
  • #5
You can derive a simpler formula from biot-savart by seeing that in a long straight wire, r = square root of l squared + R squared where l is the lenth of the wire and R is the distance from the wire. Also sin of the angle is R/r. subsituting these in and integrating with respect to s, assuming the wire is of infinite length, you can derive an easy formula to use.
 
  • #6
so getting B = UoI/2πr for a simpler formula by doing MatSci method. Then substituting in giving values I got (4πx10^-7 * 5) / (2π * 1) = 1 x 10^-6. Take this times 4 for the summation yields 4 x 10^-6 T. This on the right track now? Thanks for all the help!
 
  • #7
Well actually we reduced biot-savart for an infinitely long wire. We don't want to do this in this problem. So before integrating from 0 to infinite, you want to integrate from -L/2 to L/2 where L is the length of each square side. This comes out to be (mui/2(pie)r) (L/(L^2 + 4R^2)^(1/2)). With the infinite wire, L went to infinite and you could essentially ignore R^2 to receive what you got. But in this case, L equals length of sides and R equals L/2. So the final in the box current is given by B=2mui/(pie)L2^(1/2) where L is the length of each side.
 

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A magnetic field problem refers to any issue or challenge related to the behavior or manipulation of magnetic fields. This can include understanding the properties of magnetic fields, calculating their strength and direction, or troubleshooting problems with magnetic devices or systems.

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