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PHY 3330 Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism Kyle Busse

Biot and Savart Law Example


kyle_busse@baylor.edu

Calculate the magnetic induction at the center of a uniformly charged spherical shell, of radius R and total
charge Q, spinning at constant angular velocity .

Recall the spherical unit vectors (with the polar angle and the azimuthal angle):

r = sin () cos () + sin () sin () + cos ()k


= cos () cos () + cos () sin () sin ()k

= sin () + cos ()

Now consider the ring of current represented by the circle shown. It is clear that the radius of the circle
direction, we
shown is r = R sin (), and noting that the linear velocity (and hence the current) is in the
can write down the surface current density on the sphere as

= R sin ().
K = v = r
Writing the charge density explicitly, and expanding rewriting the vector in rectangular coordinates:

Q sin () Q sin ()
K= =
[ sin () + cos ()]
4R 4R
Now the unit vector from the hoop of current to the point of interest is given by

r = r = sin () cos () sin () sin () cos ()k.


Now, we can use the Biot and Savart law in the form

0 K(r0 ) r 0
B= da
4 R2

Spring 2017
PHY 3330 Intermediate Electricity and Magnetism Kyle Busse

Taking the cross product in the numerator:

k

Q sin ()

K(r ) r =
0

sin () cos () 0
4R
sin () cos () sin () sin () cos ()
Q h  i
cos () cos () sin () sin () cos () sin () + sin2 () sin2 () + cos2 () k

=
4R
Q h i
= cos () cos () sin () sin () cos () sin () + sin2 ()k
4R
Then the magnetic induction is given by

 2 
0 Q
B= cos () cos () sin ()R2 sin () dd
16 2 R3 0 0
 2 
0 Q 2
+ sin () cos () sin ()R sin () dd
16 2 R3 0 0
 2 
0 Q 2 2
+ sin ()R sin () dd k.
16 2 R3 0 0

Now, noting that the cos () and sin () (namely, in the and integrals) vanish from integration on [0, 2],
were left with the k integral:
 2     
0 Q 3 = 0 Q 3 = 0 Q 4 k = 0 Q k.
B= sin () dd k sin () d k
16 2 R 0 0 8R 0 8R 3 6R
Then the magnetic induction at the center of the sphere is given by

0 Q
B= k
6R

Spring 2017

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