- #1
zenterix
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- Homework Statement
- Consider the figure below, which shows an infinite wire carrying a current
and a semicircular conducting loop with current placed near the wire.
- Relevant Equations
- What happens to to the semicircular loop?
Please see the image further below for the definition of the coordinate system.
The magnetic dipole moment of the loop is
The magnetic field for an infinite wire depends only on the distance from the wire.
For the specific configuration above, we have
Note that I calculated this field considering an infinite wire and a point
Then
That is, there is no torque on the loop.
Since the partial derivative above is negative, the loop translates towards the wire.
The problem I just solved online entailed reaching the two conclusions above, namely that the loop experiences no torque and translates towards the wire.
However, I am a little bit confused about some things.
I simply applied the formula I just learned:
However,
The way I solved the problem, I considered
But doesn't
After all,
There is something wrong with my interpretation of the equation