Question

Earth's magnetic field is approximately 1/2 gauss, that is 50 micro-tesla because the SI field unit of a tesla is 10,000 gauss. Earth's north geographic pole is close to its south magnetic pole, and magnetic field is directed from the north to the south poles of a magnetic dipole so it goes from Earth's south geographic pole towards its north. Suppose you have wire carrying a large DC current from the south wall of a building to its north wall and that it is horizontal, on the floor. If Earth's field is parallel to the ground and does not dip, what force if any would the wire experience

Answer 1

F = 0

Step-by-step explanation:

The magnetic force is described by two expressions

for a moving charge

F = q v x B

for a wire with a current

F = I L xB

bold indicates vectors

let's write this equation in module form

F = I L B sin θ

where the angle is between the direction of the current and the direction of the magnetic field

In this case they indicate that the cable goes from the South wall to the North wall, so this is the direction of the current

The magnetic field of the Earth goes from the south to the north and in this part it is horizontal

Therefore the current and the magnetic field are parallel, the angle between them is zero

sin 0 = 0

consequently the magnetic force is zero

F = 0