PPT No.

17

* Biot Savarts Law- Statement, Proof

Applications of Biot Savarts Law
* Magnetic Field Intensity H
* Divergence of B
* Curl of B

Biot Savarts Law

A straight infinitely long wire
is carrying a steady current I.
Point P is at
a perpendicular distance (AP=) R from the wire.
Consider a small element
at the point O on the wire.
The line joining points O to P (OP=vector r)
makes an angle
with the direction of the current element d .

Biot Savarts Law

Fig. (a) Magnetic Field dB due to current carrying element

(b) Derivation of dB

Biot Savarts Law

The magnetic field dB due to the current element of
length d at P is observed to be given by

The product d x r has a magnitude d r sin .

It is directed perpendicular to both d and r. i.e.
it is perpendicular to the plane of the paper and going into it,
according to the right handed corkscrew rule
(direction in which a right handed corkscrew advances
when turning from d to r).

Biot Savarts Law

The expression for the total magnetic field B due to the wire
can be obtained by integrating the above expression as

or equivalently,
It is called as the BiotSavart law which gives
the Magnetic field B generated by a steady Electric current I
when the current can be approximated as
running through an infinitely-narrow wire.

Biot Savarts Law

If the current has some thickness i.e. current density is J,
then the statement of the Biot Savarts law is:
or equivalently,
Where d= differential current length element
dV = volume element
0 = the Magnetic constant,
r = displacement vector
= the displacement unit vector,

Biot Savarts Law

The magnetic field B at a point P due to
an infinite (very long) straight wire
carrying a current I is proportional to I, and
is inversely proportional to
the perpendicular distance R
of the point from the wire.
The vector field B depends on
the magnitude, direction, length, and
proximity of the electric current, and also on
a fundamental constant called the Magnetic constant 0

Biot Savarts Law

The BiotSavart law is fundamental to Magnetostatics

It plays a role similar to Coulombs Law in Electrostatics.
The Biot-Savart Law relates Magnetic fields to
the electric currents which are their sources just as
Coulombs Law relates electric fields to
the point charges which are their sources.

Biot Savarts Law

The Biot-Savart Law provides a relation between

the cause (moving charge) and
the effect (magnetic field)
in magnetism.
It is an empirical law
(formulated from the experimental observations)
like the Coulombs law.
Both are inverse square laws.

Biot Savarts Law

In spite of this parallel situation,
one important distinction between
the Coulombs law and the Biot Savarts law is that
the magnetic field B, is in the direction of
the vector cross product d x r i.e.
along the perpendicular direction of the plane constituted by
the current length element d and displacement vector r
while electrostatic field E is along the displacement vector.

Biot Savarts Law

This necessitates representation of B-Field by
vector notation and
3-D space for its visualization.
The magnetic field B as computed
using the Biot-Savart law
always satisfies Amperes Circuital Law and
Gauss Law for Magnetism

Biot Savarts Law

or

Though the above statement of Biot-Savart law is for

a macroscopic current element,
it can be applied in the calculation of magnetic field
even at the atomic/molecular level
(in which case quantum mechanical calculation or theory
is used for obtaining the current density).

Applications of Biot Savarts Law

Biot-Savarts law is stated for
a small current element (Id) of wire
Not for the extended wire carrying current.
However, magnetic field due to
extended wire carrying current
can be found by using the superposition principle i.e.
the magnetic field is
a vector sum of the fields created by
each infinitesimal section of the wire individually.

Applications of Biot Savarts Law

For calculating the magnetic field due to
an extended wire carrying current
The point in space at which
the magnetic field is to be computed is chosen,
it is held fixed and integration is carried out
over the path of the current(s)
by applying the equation of Biot Savarts Law.

Applications of Biot Savarts Law

Applications of Biot Savarts Law

Magnetic Field at the Centre of the Current Loop
Consider a circular loop of radius r carrying a current I
At the center of the loop,
the magnitude of the magnetic field B is given by
B=
The direction of the magnetic field is indicated by
The Right Hand Rule
The magnetic field changes away from the center
in both magnitude and direction

Applications of Biot Savarts Law

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

Magnetic field at any point on the axis of a circular loop

can be obtained as follows
Consider a circular loop of radius a having its centre at O.
Point P is situated on the axis of loop at a distance R
from the centre O of the loop.
The loop carries a current I.

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

The magnitude of the fields dB & dB due to
small current elements d and d of the circle,
centered at A and A
(at diagrammatically opposite points) respectively
is given by Biot Savarts law as

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

Fig. Magnetic B-Field due to a circular current loop

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

The direction of the field dB is normal to a plane containing
d and AP i.e. along PQ and that of dB is along PQ.
The fields can be resolved into two components in mutually
perpendicular directions along the axis and
Perpendicular to axis i.e. along PS/ PS.
Their Components dB cos along PS and
dBcos along PS are
equal and opposite and get cancelled.
Components along the axis dB sin and dB sin
both have the same direction and are added up.
This applies to all such pairs of elements.

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

Thus the resultant field due to the loop
is directed along the axis of the loop and
its magnitude is obtained by integrating the expression

Magnetic Field due to a Circular Current Loop

The magnetic field B due to the circular current loop
of radius a at a point on its axis and a distance R away
is given by integrating the above expression as

(i

is the unit vector along OP, the x-axis)

Some other examples of geometries where

the Biot Savarts Law can be used to advantage
in calculating the Magnetic field resulting from
an Electric current distribution are as follows

Applications of Biot Savart Law

Magnetic Field of an Infinitely Long Wire
The magnetic field B at a point distance r from
an infinitely long wire carrying current I has magnitude

The direction of Magnetic Field

is given by the Right-hand rule.

Applications of Biot Savart Law

Magnetic Field of a Long Solenoid
The magnetic field B inside the long solenoid of length L
with N turns of wire wrapped evenly along its length is
uniform throughout the volume of the solenoid (except
near the ends where the magnetic field becomes weak)
and is given by

B is independent of the length and diameter and

uniform over cross-section of solenoid

Applications of Biot Savart Law

Magnetic Field of a Solenoid

Magnetic Field inside A long Solenoid

(A) Divergence of B-field

According to the Gauss law in electrostatics,
divergence of the static electric field is equal to
the total density of a stationary electric charge/s
at a given point.
div. E =

(A) Divergence of B-field

However in magnetostatics a magnetic charge
(i.e. monopole) is not found to exist.
(The source of magnetic fields is
moving electric charges, Not the static ones).
Due to the absence of magnetic charges,
the magnetic field is divergenceless.
In Differential form

(where B is the Magnetic field

denotes Divergence)

(A) Divergence of B-field

This is called as the Gauss's law for magnetism

(though this term is not universally adopted).
It states that the magnetic field B
has divergence equal to zero i.e.
magnetic field is a solenoidal vector field

(A) Divergence of B-field

It is equivalent to the statement that

Magnetic Monopole
(i.e. isolated North or South magnetic pole)
does not exist.
The basic quantity for magnetism is
the Magnetic Dipole
Not the magnetic charge or monopole.
Hence, the law is also called as
"Absence of Free Magnetic poles ".

(A) Divergence of B-field

The statement of Gauss's law for magnetism

in integral form is given as

Where S is any closed surface

(the boundary enclosing a three-dimensional volume);
dA is a vector, having magnitude equal to
the infinitesimal area of the surface S and
direction along the surface normal pointing outward.

(A) Divergence of B-field

The left-hand side of the equation in integral form denotes

the net flux of the magnetic field out of the surface.
The law implies that the net magnetic flux
into and out of a volume is zero.
Thus Gauss's law for magnetism can be written in
both- differential and integral- forms.
These forms are equivalent due to the Divergence theorem

(A) Divergence of B-field

The magnetic field B, like any vector field,
can be represented by field lines.
Gauss's law for magnetism also implies that
the field lines have neither a beginning nor an end.
They either form a closed loop,
or extend to infinity in both directions.

(B) Curl of B-field

Circulation is the amount of
pushing, twisting or turning force
along a closed boundary / path
when the path is shrunk down to a single point.
Circulation is the integral of a vector field along a path.
A vector field is usually the source of the circulation.
Curl is the circulation per unit area,
circulation density, or
rate of rotation (amount of twisting at a single point

(B) Curl of B-field

The curl of a force F
is calculated as follows

Let the Force at position r=

Direction at position r =
Total pushing force =
Curl =

(B) Curl of B-field

Curl is defined as the vector field having

magnitude equal to the maximum "circulation" at each point
and to be oriented perpendicularly
to this plane of circulation for each point.
The magnitude of

is the limiting value of circulation per unit area

(B) Curl of B-field

=> the field is said to be an irrotational field.

The physical significance of the curl of a vector field is
the amount of "rotation" or angular momentum of
the contents of given region of space.
It arises in fluid mechanics and elasticity theory.
It is also fundamental in the theory of electromagnetism

(B) Curl of B-field

In magnetostatics, it can be proved that
the curl of magnetic field B is given by

Thus the curl of a magnetic B field at any point is equal to

0 times the current density J at that point.
This simple statement relates the magnetic field
and moving charges.
The equation is mathematically equivalent to
the line integral equation given by Amperes law.

Divergence and Curl of B-field

The equations in terms of

Divergence and Curl of magnetic B-field
are also called as the laws of Magnetostatics.
They correspond to
the curl and divergence of
electric field E respectively in electrostatics as follows

Divergence and Curl of B-field

Electrostatics
Field is without curl

Magnetostatics
Field is without divergence

Field BSource j relation

Field E Source relation

Divergence and Curl of B-field

The equations for divergence and curl for vector fields
are extremely powerful.
Expressions for divergence and curl of a magnetic field
describe uniquely any magnetic field from
the current density j in the field in the same manner that
the equations for the divergence and curl for the electric field
describe an electric field from
the electric charge density in the electric field.

Divergence and Curl of B-field

The four equations involving Curl and Divergence for
Electric and Magnetic fields are
the versions of Maxwells equations for
static electromagnetic fields.
They describe mathematically the entire content of
Electrostatics and Magnetostatics.