- #1
Notaphysicsmajor
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Thread moved from the technical forums, so no Homework Template is shown
Hello
Today we did a lab and one of the activities was having a compass underneath a wire while the current was off. The wire was straight so that it was directly aligned to be with the needle of the compass. One the current was flowing, the compass arranged itself in that it was not exactly 90 degrees perpendicular to the wire, but pretty close.
To help visualize the set up pretend that the wire was horizontal and the current was moving from left to right. The needle would then move once then current was moving. From what I understand is that magnetic field lines move inward toward with the south end, and outwards from the north end. Can someone clarify to me what these north and south ends are, my guess is that it would be a magnet? Also when a current is turned on, which of the needles on the compass is pointing in the direction of the magnetic field produced by the current on the wire?
Today we did a lab and one of the activities was having a compass underneath a wire while the current was off. The wire was straight so that it was directly aligned to be with the needle of the compass. One the current was flowing, the compass arranged itself in that it was not exactly 90 degrees perpendicular to the wire, but pretty close.
To help visualize the set up pretend that the wire was horizontal and the current was moving from left to right. The needle would then move once then current was moving. From what I understand is that magnetic field lines move inward toward with the south end, and outwards from the north end. Can someone clarify to me what these north and south ends are, my guess is that it would be a magnet? Also when a current is turned on, which of the needles on the compass is pointing in the direction of the magnetic field produced by the current on the wire?