Question

REDDIT You look at a circular loop of wire such that the plane of the loop is perpendicular to your line of vision. The loop has a constant current that is running through it clockwise. What will happen if a magnetic field were to be activated that is pointing in your direction

Answer 1

The circular loop experiences a constant force which is always directed towards the center of the loop and tends to compress it.

Step-by-step explanation:

Since the magnetic field, B points in my direction and the current, I is moving in a clockwise direction, the current is always perpendicular to the magnetic field and will thus experience a constant force, F = BILsinФ where Ф is the angle between B and L.

Since the magnetic field is in my direction, it is perpendicular to the plane of the circular loop and thus perpendicular to L where L = length of circular loop. Thus Ф = 90° and F = BILsin90° = BIL

According to Fleming's left-hand rule, the fore finger representing the magnetic field, the middle finger represent in the current and the thumb representing the direction of force on the circular loop.

At each point on the circular loop, the force is always directed towards the center of the loop and thus tends to compress it.

So, the circular loop experiences a constant force which is always directed towards the center of the loop and tends to compress it.