Question

You are working on a levitation experiment. You have a piece of wire that is 2 meters long in achamber that has a magnetic field of 10 Teslas. How much current do you have to run through the wireto get a magnetic force of 25 Newtons?

Answer 1

Let's name some variables:

B: magnetic field; B = 10T

I: current (we need to solve for this

L: length of wire; L = 2m

F: force; F = 25N

θ: angle between the wire and the magnetic field (almost always 90 degrees unless specified otherwise)

Let's use this equation:

F = I*L*B*sinθ

Now let's plug in the variables we know:

25 = I*2*10*sin(90)

Since sin(90) = 1, we're multiplying everything by 1.

Therefore,

25 = 20I

Now we can solve for I.

I = 25/20 = 5/4

I = 1.25A