PHYS2255 Introductory Electricity and Magnetism

HOMEWORK 4 DUE DATE: April 14, 2020 (Tuesday) 12:00pm

 Answers should be in the form one ONE file (either DOC. DOCX or PDF) file.
 All assignments must be submitted through the Moodle page

1. [15] Modified from Serway & Jewett Chapter 29, Problem 51 In an experiment designed
to measure the Earth’s magnetic field using the Hall effect, a copper bar 3.00cm width and
0.500 cm thick is oriented so that the resulting Hall voltage is measured to have a value of
5.10 × 10-12 V if a current of 8.00 A is passed into the conductor. (n = 8.46 × 1028
electrons/m3). Determine

(a) the magnitude of the drift velocity of the electrons in inside the copper bar;
(b) the orientation of the copper bar;
(c) the magnitude of the Earth’s magnetic field in units of Tesla and Gauss.

2. [10] Knight (2nd Edition) Chapter 33, Problem 62 A uniform magnetic field B of 1.20 T
points in the positive z-direction. An electron (charge e, mass me) enters the region of
magnetic field with a speed v and at an angle  above the xy-plane. (a) Determine the
radius r and the pitch p of the electron’s spiral trajectory. (b) Suppose v = 2.00 × 107 ms-1
and  = 30°, determine the actual values of r and p.

3. [10] Tipler & Mosca (6th ed) Chapter 26, Problem 21 Suppose you are a student assistant to
help a teacher to set up a demonstration of the power of magnetic force in class. A straight, stiff,
horizontal 25-cm-long wire that has a mass equal to 50 g is connected to a source of emf by
light, flexible leads. A magnetic field of 1.33 T is horizontal and perpendicular to the wire. (a)
Show the exact configuration (such as direction of current, magnetic field, orientation of wire,
etc) required for your demonstration; (b) Find the current necessary to float the wire, that is,
when it is released from rest it remains at rest.
4. [15] Modified from Tipler & Mosca (6th ed) Chapter 26, Problem 52 A rectangular current-carrying
50-turn coil, as shown below, is pivoted about the z axis. (a) If the direction of the magnetic moment

n̂ = ( iˆ  ĵ )/ 2 , determine the angle  which the plane of the coil makes with the positive y-axis.

(b) What is the magnetic moment of the coil? (c) Find the torque on the coil when there is a uniform

magnetic field B = 1.5 T ĵ in the region occupied by the coil. (d) Find the potential energy of the

coil in this field. (Taking the potential energy of the coil to be zero for  = 0.)

5. [10] A long, round copper cylinder 12 cm in diameter has a hole 2 cm in diameter bored along
its length; the center of the hole is 4 cm from the center of the cylinder. A current of 15 A
uniformly distributed over the cross-sectional area of the metal is flowing along the cylinder.
Find the magnetic field (in units of Gauss)
(a) along the center line of the hole.
(b) along the outer periphery of the hole, indicated by the point P in the figure.

4 cm
diameter = 2 cm P
6. [15] Modified from Tipler & Mosca (6th ed) Chapter 26, Problem 59 A uniform non-
conducting thin rod of mass m and length L has a uniform charge per unit length  and rotates
with angular speed  about an axis through one end and perpendicular to the rod. Determine
its magnetic moment (Hint: By considering a small segment of the rod of length dx and
charge dq = dr at a distance r from the pivot, find the average current created by this moving
segment, and hence its magnetic moment. Integrate to get the value for the entire rod.)
7. [25] Modified from Serway & Jewett 8th Ed. Chapter 30, Problem 58 Two circular coils of
radius a are perpendicular to a common axis. The coil centers are a distance b apart and each
carries a steady current I as shown. We would like to investigate the uniformity of the field
in the vicinity of the point P, the midpoint between the center of the two coils.
(a). Determine the magnetic field B0 on the axis at point P and the field B at another point P’
which is at a distance x from the midpoint between the center of the two coils.

(b). Helmholtz coils is the setting in which b = a. Show that for Helmholz coils, both the
first and second derivative dB/dx and d2B/dx2 are zero at point P.

(c). The Helmholtz coils is a device very useful for generating a fairly uniform magnetic field
near the point P. For the Helmholtz coils, when we consider the magnetic field of a
point P’ near point P, that is x << a, show that when we can write the difference between
the magnitude of the two magnetic fields as a polynomial of x (that is,

B  B0   K n  x n , where Kn are the coefficients of Taylor expansion), we can determine
n0

the leading non-zero term is the fourth power of x, that is, B B0  O(x4). How can this
information can help us to conclude that the magnetic field in the region midway between
the coils is very uniform?

(d). [Computational problem, 10 marks] Using MATLAB, or any other plotting program,
make graphs of how B (in units of 0I/2a) for values of b = 4a, 2a, a, a/2 and a/4. Also,
for the case of Helmholtz coils, compute how much the magnetic field deviates from that
at the center when the point is half-way and a quarter-way from the center (that is, when x
= a/4 and a/8)?

b b

a a

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