Magnetic Fields

1.
a. Explain what is meant by field strength of a magnetic field.
b. Express the tesla in base units.
c. Calculate the current in the cable for a household electric fire rated at 3 kW (Take mains voltage to be 240V).
d. A child stands 50cm from the cable, what will be the value of the field in the region of the child?

2.
a. A solenoid is formed by winding 300 turns of wire onto a hollow cardboard tube of length 0.15m. Show that when
there is a current of 0.4A in the solenoid, the magnetic flux density at the centre is 1.0 × 10-3 T. The solenoid has a
cross-sectional area of 5 × 10-3 m2. The magnetic flux emerging from one end of the solenoid is 2.7 × 10-6 Wb.
Calculate the magnetic flux density at the end of the solenoid.
b. Why is the flux density at the end not equal to the flux density at the centre?

3. Explain what is meant by a neutral point in a field.

a. Sketch the magnetic field pattern of a long straight, current-carrying wire, indicating the directions of
both the current and the field lines.
b. Sketch the magnetic field pattern between two magnadur magnets. Indicating the direction of the field
lines.
c. Sketch the combination of the fields of (a) and (b) and explain why it results in a force on the wire which
is at right angles to both the wire and the field.

4. The coil in a microphone has an average radius of 5.0 cm and consists of 250 turns.
a. Calculate the total length of the wire. The microphone magnet produces a field strength, at right angles
to the coil, of 250 mT.
b. Calculate the force on the coil when it carries a current of 4mA.
c. What is the effect on the coil when the current through the coil alternates?

5. Two long straight wires, each carrying a current of 1.5 A, are placed 2 m apart in air.
a. Calculate the force which each wire exerts on each 1metre length of the other.
b. If the current in each wire is in the same direction, which direction is the force?
c. If the current in one wire is in the opposite direction to that in the other wire, which direction is the force?

6. A cyclotron consists of two “Ds” (semicircular areas of magnetic field) connected by a high frequency
alternating supply. Charged particles emerge from the centre and travel in a spiral path of approximately
circular orbits in each D. as they pass over the gap between the Ds
they experience a voltage of 6 kV, which is always in such a
direction as to accelerate the particles. In the diagram the field is
out of the plane of the paper so that positive particles will follow
typical paths like the one shown.
a. Calculate the gain in KE each time a proton passes across a gap.
b. If voltage is to change direction at fixed intervals, then the time
period for each circuit in the Ds must be independent of the
speed of the particle. Show that this is the case.
c. Show that the KE of a proton circulating at radius r is KE = B2q2r2/2m
d. Calculate how many times a proton will circulate before the radius of the orbit is 89.5 cm, if the B field
is 0.5 T.
Mass of the proton = 1.66 × 10-27 kg and charge of proton = 1.6 × 10-19 C

K. Suresh Senanayake