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So I got a question on a E&M Midterm:
There is a line current of I at the origin going in the Z direction. There is a magnetic dipole of:
\vec{m}=m_r\hat{r}+m_\varphi\hat{\varphi} located at (r,\varphi). What is the force and torque on this magnetic dipole?
So I used the equations:
\vec{F}=-\nabla U=-\nabla(\vec{m}\cdot\vec{B})
\vec{\tau}=\vec{m}\times\vec{B}
I know from Ampere's law that the field is:
\vec{B}=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\hat{\varphi}
So, I reason that the angle between the field and the dipole is:
\theta=\frac{\pi}{2}-tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r})
Since the field is only in the \varphi direction, I just drew a triangle.
Therefore, I got that:
\vec{F}=-\nabla(\vec{m}\cdot\vec{B})=-\nabla(mBcos(\theta))=-\nabla(\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}sin(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r^2}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}sin(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))\hat{r}
\vec{\tau}=\vec{m}\times\vec{B}=mBsin(\theta)\hat{z}=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}cos(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))\hat{z}
Unfortunately these are all wrong, as far as I can tell from looking at my Professor's solutions. What did I do wrong? =(
There is a line current of I at the origin going in the Z direction. There is a magnetic dipole of:
\vec{m}=m_r\hat{r}+m_\varphi\hat{\varphi} located at (r,\varphi). What is the force and torque on this magnetic dipole?
So I used the equations:
\vec{F}=-\nabla U=-\nabla(\vec{m}\cdot\vec{B})
\vec{\tau}=\vec{m}\times\vec{B}
I know from Ampere's law that the field is:
\vec{B}=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\hat{\varphi}
So, I reason that the angle between the field and the dipole is:
\theta=\frac{\pi}{2}-tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r})
Since the field is only in the \varphi direction, I just drew a triangle.
Therefore, I got that:
\vec{F}=-\nabla(\vec{m}\cdot\vec{B})=-\nabla(mBcos(\theta))=-\nabla(\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}sin(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r^2}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}sin(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))\hat{r}
\vec{\tau}=\vec{m}\times\vec{B}=mBsin(\theta)\hat{z}=\frac{\mu_0 I}{2\pi r}\sqrt{m_\varphi^2+m_r^2}cos(tan^{-1}(\frac{m_\varphi}{m_r}))\hat{z}
Unfortunately these are all wrong, as far as I can tell from looking at my Professor's solutions. What did I do wrong? =(