A Brief Intro into Electromagnetism

The topics covered in this part are given below:

     • Oersted’ Experiment

     • Magnetic Field

     • Moving Charge & Magnetic Field

     • Lorentz Force

     • Magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor

     • The motion of a charged particle in a Magnetic Field

     • The motion of a charge in Combined Electric and Magnetic Fields

     • Cyclotron

Electromagnetism is a branch of Physics, deals with the electromagnetic force that occurs between electrically charged particles. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces and exhibits electromagnetic fields such as magnetic fields, electric fields, and light. It is the basic reason electrons bound to the nucleus and responsible for the complete structure of the nucleus.

Before the invention of electromagnetism, people or scientists used to think magnetism and electricity are two different topics. The view has changed after James Clerk Maxwell published A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in the year 1873. The publication states that the interaction of positive and negative charges are mediated by one force. This observation laid the foundation to Electromagnetism. Later many scientists like Michael Faraday, Oliver Heaviside, and Heinrich Hertz contributed their ideas in electromagnetism.

Electromagnetism is a process where the magnetic field is created by introducing current in the conductor. When a conductor is electrically charged it generates magnetic lines of force of conductor. For example, if current i.e., positive charges moving in a wire, it produces the magnetic field along the wire and the direction of magnetic lines, and force can be determined using Right Hand Rule.

Oersted’ Experiment

During a lecture demonstration in 1820, the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted noticed that a current in a straight wire caused a noticeable deflection in a nearby magnetic compass needle. He further investigated this phenomenon and confirmed the phenomenon of the magnetic field around current carrying conductor.

Magnetic Field

It is the space around a magnet or current carrying conductor around which magnetic effects can be experienced. It is a vector quantity and its SI unit is Tesla (T) or Wb/m².