Electricity and magnetism were long thought to be separate forces. It was not until the 19th century that they were finally treated as interrelated phenomena. In 1905 Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity established beyond a doubt that both are aspects of one common phenomenon. At a practical level, however, electric and magnetic forces behave quite differently and are described by different equations. Electric forces are produced by electric charges either at rest or in motion. Magnetic forces, on the other hand, are produced only by moving charges and act solely on charges in motion.
Electric phenomena occur even in neutral matter because the forces act on the individual charged constituents. The electric force, in particular, is responsible for most of the physical and chemical properties of atoms and molecules. It is enormously strong compared with gravity. For example, the absence of only one electron out of every billion molecules in two 70-kilogram (154-pound) persons standing two metres (two yards) apart would repel them with a 30,000-ton force. On a more familiar scale, electric phenomena are responsible for the lightning and thunder accompanying certain storms.
Electric and magnetic forces can be detected in regions called electric and magnetic fields. These fields are fundamental in nature and can exist in space far from the charge or current that generated them. Remarkably, electric fields can produce magnetic fields and vice versa, independent of any external charge. A changing magnetic field produces an electric field, as the English physicist Michael Faraday discovered in work that forms the basis of electric power generation. Conversely, a changing electric field produces a magnetic field, as the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell deduced. The mathematical equations formulated by Maxwell incorporated light and wave phenomena into electromagnetism. He showed that electric and magnetic fields travel together through space as waves of electromagnetic radiation, with the changing fields mutually sustaining each other. Examples of electromagnetic waves traveling through space independent of matter are radio and television waves, microwaves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays. All of these waves travel at the same speed—namely, the velocity of light (roughly 300,000 kilometres, or 186,000 miles, per second). They differ from each other only in the frequency at which their electric and magnetic fields oscillate.
Maxwell’s equations still provide a complete and elegant description of electromagnetism down to, but not including, the subatomic scale. The interpretation of his work, however, was broadened in the 20th century. Einstein’s special relativity theory merged electric and magnetic fields into one common field and limited the velocity of all matter to the velocity of electromagnetic radiation. During the late 1960s, physicists discovered that other forces in nature have fields with a mathematical structure similar to that of the electromagnetic field. These other forces are the nuclear force, responsible for the energy released in nuclear fusion, and the weak force, observed in the radioactive decay of unstable atomic nuclei. In particular, the weak and electromagnetic forces have been combined into a common force called the electroweak force. The goal of many physicists to unite all of the fundamental forces, including gravity, into one grand unified theory has not been attained to date.
An important aspect of electromagnetism is the science of electricity, which is concerned with the behaviour of aggregates of charge, including the distribution of charge within matter and the motion of charge from place to place. Different types of materials are classified as either conductors or insulators on the basis of whether charges can move freely through their constituent matter. Electric current is the measure of the flow of charges; the laws governing currents in matter are important in technology, particularly in the production, distribution, and control of energy.
The concept of voltage, like those of charge and current, is fundamental to the science of electricity. Voltage is a measure of the propensity of charge to flow from one place to another; positive charges generally tend to move from a region of high voltage to a region of lower voltage. A common problem in electricity is determining the relationship between voltage and current or charge in a given physical situation.
This article seeks to provide a qualitative understanding of electromagnetism as well as a quantitative appreciation for the magnitudes associated with electromagnetic phenomena.
Everyday modern life is pervaded by electromagnetic phenomena. When a light bulb is switched on, a current flows through a thin filament in the bulb; the current heats the filament to such a high temperature that it glows, illuminating its surroundings. Electric clocks and connections link simple devices of this kind into complex systems such as traffic lights that are timed and synchronized with the speed of vehicular flow. Radio and television sets receive information carried by electromagnetic waves traveling through space at the speed of light. To start an automobile, currents in an electric starter motor generate magnetic fields that rotate the motor shaft and drive engine pistons to compress an explosive mixture of gasoline and air; the spark initiating the combustion is an electric discharge, which makes up a momentary current flow.
Many of these devices and phenomena are complex, but they derive from the same fundamental laws of electromagnetism. One of the most important of these is Coulomb’s law, which describes the electric force between charged objects. Formulated by the 18th-century French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, it is analogous to Newton’s law for the gravitational force. Both gravitational and electric forces decrease with the square of the distance between the objects, and both forces act along a line between them. In Coulomb’s law, however, the magnitude and sign of the electric force are determined by the charge, rather than the mass, of an object. Thus, charge determines how electromagnetism influences the motion of charged objects. (Charge is a basic property of matter. Every constituent of matter has an electric charge with a value that can be positive, negative, or zero. For example, electrons are negatively charged, and atomic nuclei are positively charged. Most bulk matter has an equal amount of positive and negative charge and thus has zero net charge.)
According to Coulomb, the electric force for charges at rest has the following properties:
(1) Like charges repel each other; unlike charges attract. Thus, two negative charges repel one another, while a positive charge attracts a negative charge.
(2) The attraction or repulsion acts along the line between the two charges.
(3) The size of the force varies inversely as the square of the distance between the two charges. Therefore, if the distance between the two charges is doubled, the attraction or repulsion becomes weaker, decreasing to one-fourth of the original value. If the charges come 10 times closer, the size of the force increases by a factor of 100.
(4) The size of the force is proportional to the value of each charge. The unit used to measure charge is the coulomb (C). If there were two positive charges, one of 0.1 coulomb and the second of 0.2 coulomb, they would repel each other with a force that depends on the product 0.2 × 0.1. If each of the charges were reduced by one-half, the repulsion would be reduced to one-quarter of its former value.
Static cling is a practical example of the Coulomb force. In static cling, garments made of synthetic material collect a charge, especially in dry winter air. A plastic or rubber comb passed quickly through hair also becomes charged and will pick up bits of paper. The synthetic fabric and the comb are insulators; charge on these objects cannot move easily from one part of the object to another. Similarly, an office copy machine uses electric force to attract particles of ink to paper.
Principle of charge conservation
Like Coulomb’s law, the principle of charge conservation is a fundamental law of nature. According to this principle, the charge of an isolated system cannot change. If an additional positively charged particle appears within a system, a particle with a negative charge of the same magnitude will be created at the same time; thus, the principle of conservation of charge is maintained. In nature, a pair of oppositely charged particles is created when high-energy radiation interacts with matter; an electron and a positron are created in a process known as pair production.
The smallest subdivision of the amount of charge that a particle can have is the charge of one proton, +1.602 × 10−19 coulomb. The electron has a charge of the same magnitude but opposite sign—i.e., −1.602 × 10−19 coulomb. An ordinary flashlight battery delivers a current that provides a total charge flow of approximately 5,000 coulomb, which corresponds to more than 1022 electrons, before it is exhausted.
Electric current is a measure of the flow of charge, as, for example, charge flowing through a wire. The size of the current is measured in amperes and symbolized by i. An ampere of current represents the passage of one coulomb of charge per second, or 6.2 billion billion electrons (6.2 × 1018 electrons) per second. A current is positive when it is in the direction of the flow of positive charges; its direction is opposite to the flow of negative charges.
Electric fields and forces
The force and conservation laws are only two aspects of electromagnetism, however. Electric and magnetic forces are caused by electromagnetic fields. The term field denotes a property of space, so that the field quantity has a numerical value at each point of space. These values may also vary with time. The value of the electric or magnetic field is a vector—i.e., a quantity having both magnitude and direction. The value of the electric field at a point in space, for example, equals the force that would be exerted on a unit charge at that position in space.
Every charged object sets up an electric field in the surrounding space. A second charge “feels” the presence of this field. The second charge is either attracted toward the initial charge or repelled from it, depending on the signs of the charges. Of course, since the second charge also has an electric field, the first charge feels its presence and is either attracted or repelled by the second charge, too.
The electric field from a charge is directed away from the charge when the charge is positive and toward the charge when it is negative. The electric field from a charge at rest is shown in Figure 1 for various locations in space. The arrows point in the direction of the electric field, and the length of the arrows indicates the strength of the field at the midpoint of the arrows.
If a positive charge were placed in the electric field, it would feel a force in the direction of the field. A negative charge would feel a force in the direction opposite the direction of the field.
In calculations, it is often more convenient to deal directly with the electric field than with the charges; frequently, more is known about the field than about the distribution of charges in space. For example, the distribution of charges in conductors is generally unknown because the charges move freely within the conductor. In static situations, however, the electric field in a conductor in equilibrium has a definite value, zero, because any force on the charges inside the conductor redistributes them until the field vanishes. The unit of electric field is newtons per coulomb, or volts per metre.
The electric potential is another useful field. It provides an alternative to the electric field in electrostatics problems. The potential is easier to use, however, because it is a single number, a scalar, instead of a vector. The difference in potential between two places measures the degree to which charges are influenced to move from one place to another. If the potential is the same at two places (i.e., if the places have the same voltage), charges will not be influenced to move from one place to the other. The potential on an object or at some point in space is measured in volts; it equals the electrostatic energy that a unit charge would have at that position. In a typical 12-volt car battery, the battery terminal that is marked with a + sign is at a potential 12 volts greater than the potential of the terminal marked with the − sign. When a wire, such as the filament of a car headlight, is connected between the + and the − terminals of the battery, charges move through the filament as an electric current and heat the filament; the hot filament radiates light.
Magnetic fields and forces
The magnetic force influences only those charges that are already in motion. It is transmitted by the magnetic field. Both magnetic fields and magnetic forces are more complicated than electric fields and electric forces. The magnetic field does not point along the direction of the source of the field; instead, it points in a perpendicular direction. In addition, the magnetic force acts in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction of the field. In comparison, both the electric force and the electric field point directly toward or away from the charge.
The present discussion will deal with simple situations in which the magnetic field is produced by a current of charge in a wire. Certain materials, such as copper, silver, and aluminum, are conductors that allow charge to flow freely from place to place. If an external influence establishes a current in a conductor, the current generates a magnetic field. For a long straight wire, the magnetic field has a direction that encircles the wire on a plane perpendicular to the wire. The strength of the magnetic field decreases with distance from the wire. The arrows in Figure 2 represent the size and direction of the magnetic field for a current moving in the direction indicated. Figure 2A shows an end view with the current coming toward the reader, while Figure 2B provides a three-dimensional view of the magnetic field at one position along the wire.
In subsequent figures, continuous lines will be used to represent the direction of electric and magnetic fields. These lines emphasize the important fact that electric fields begin on positive charges and end on negative charges, while magnetic fields do not have beginnings or ends and close on themselves. The magnetic field shown in Figure 2 is unusually simple. Highly complex and useful magnetic fields can be generated by the proper choice of conductors to carry electric currents. Under development are thermonuclear fusion reactors for obtaining energy from the fusion of light nuclei in the form of very hot plasmas of hydrogen isotopes. The plasmas have to be confined by magnetic fields (dubbed “magnetic bottles”) as no material container can withstand such high temperatures. Charged particles are also confined by magnetic fields in nature. Large numbers of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, are trapped in huge bands around the Earth by its magnetic field. These bands are known as the Van Allen radiation belts. Disturbance of the Earth’s confining magnetic field produces spectacular displays, the so-called northern lights, in which trapped charged particles are freed and crash through the atmosphere to Earth.
Interaction of a magnetic field with a charge
How does the magnetic field interact with a charged object? If the charge is at rest, there is no interaction. If the charge moves, however, it is subjected to a force, the size of which increases in direct proportion with the velocity of the charge. The force has a direction that is perpendicular both to the direction of motion of the charge and to the direction of the magnetic field. There are two possible precisely opposite directions for such a force for a given direction of motion. This apparent ambiguity is resolved by the fact that one of the two directions applies to the force on a moving positive charge while the other direction applies to the force on a moving negative charge. Figure 3 illustrates the directions of the magnetic force on positive charges and on negative charges as they move in a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the motion.
Depending on the initial orientation of the particle velocity to the magnetic field, charges having a constant speed in a uniform magnetic field will follow a circular or helical path.
Electric currents in wires are not the only source of magnetic fields. Naturally occurring minerals exhibit magnetic properties and have magnetic fields. These magnetic fields result from the motion of electrons in the atoms of the material. They also result from a property of electrons called the magnetic dipole moment, which is related to the intrinsic spin of individual electrons. In most materials, little or no field is observed outside the matter because of the random orientation of the various constituent atoms. In some materials such as iron, however, atoms within certain distances tend to become aligned in one particular direction.
Magnets have numerous applications, ranging from use as toys and paper holders on home refrigerators to essential components in electric generators and machines that can accelerate particles to speeds approaching that of light. The practical application of magnetism in technology is greatly enhanced by using iron and other ferromagnetic materials with electric currents in devices like motors. These materials amplify the magnetic field produced by the currents and thereby create more powerful fields.
While electric and magnetic effects are well separated in many phenomena and applications, they are coupled closely together when there are rapid time fluctuations. Faraday’s law of induction describes how a time-varying magnetic field produces an electric field (see below Faraday’s law of induction). Important practical applications include the electric generator and transformer. In a generator, the physical motion of a magnetic field produces electricity for power. In a transformer, electric power is converted from one voltage level to another by the magnetic field of one circuit inducing an electric current in another circuit.
The existence of electromagnetic waves depends on the interaction between electric and magnetic fields. Maxwell postulated that a time-varying electric field produces a magnetic field. His theory predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves in which each time-varying field produces the other field. For example, radio waves are generated by electronic circuits known as oscillators that cause rapidly oscillating currents to flow in antennas; the rapidly varying magnetic field has an associated varying electric field. The result is the emission of radio waves into space (see electromagnetic radiation: Generation of electromagnetic radiation).
Many electromagnetic devices can be described by circuits consisting of conductors and other elements. These circuits may operate with a steady flow of current, as in a flashlight, or with time-varying currents. Important elements in circuits include sources of power called electromotive forces; resistors, which control the flow of current for a given voltage; capacitors, which store charge and energy temporarily; and inductors, which also store electrical energy for a limited time. Circuits with these elements can be described entirely with algebra. (For more complicated circuit elements such as transistors, see semiconductor device and integrated circuit).
Two mathematical quantities associated with vector fields, like the electric field E and the magnetic field B, are useful for describing electromagnetic phenomena. They are the flux of such a field through a surface and the line integral of the field along a path. The flux of a field through a surface measures how much of the field penetrates through the surface; for every small section of the surface, the flux is proportional to the area of that section and depends also on the relative orientation of the section and the field. The line integral of a field along a path measures the degree to which the field is aligned with the path; for every small section of path, it is proportional to the length of that section and is also dependent on the alignment of the field with that section of path. When the field is perpendicular to the path, there is no contribution to the line integral. The fluxes of E and B through a surface and the line integrals of these fields along a path play an important role in electromagnetic theory. As examples, the flux of the electric field E through a closed surface measures the amount of charge contained within the surface; the flux of the magnetic field B through a closed surface is always zero because there are no magnetic monopoles (magnetic charges consisting of a single pole) to act as sources of the magnetic field in the way that charge is a source of the electric field.
Effects of varying magnetic fields
The merger of electricity and magnetism from distinct phenomena into electromagnetism is tied to three closely related events. The first was Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery of the influence of an electric current on a magnetic needle—namely, that magnetic fields are produced by electric currents. Ørsted’s 1820 report of his observation spurred an intense effort by scientists to prove that magnetic fields can induce currents. The second event was Faraday’s experimental proof that a changing magnetic field can induce a current in a circuit. The third was Maxwell’s prediction that a changing electric field has an associated magnetic field. The technological revolution attributed to the development of electric power and radio communications can be traced to these three landmarks (see below).
Faraday’s law of induction
Faraday’s discovery in 1831 of the phenomenon of magnetic induction is one of the great milestones in the quest toward understanding and exploiting nature. Stated simply, Faraday found that (1) a changing magnetic field in a circuit induces an electromotive force in the circuit; and (2) the magnitude of the electromotive force equals the rate at which the flux of the magnetic field through the circuit changes. The flux is a measure of how much field penetrates through the circuit. The electromotive force is measured in volts and is represented by the equation
Here, Φ, the flux of the vector field B through the circuit, measures how much of the field passes through the circuit. To illustrate the meaning of flux, imagine how much water from a steady rain will pass through a circular ring of area A. When the ring is placed parallel to the path of the water drops, no water passes through the ring. The maximum rate at which drops of rain pass through the ring occurs when the surface is perpendicular to the motion of the drops. The rate of water drops crossing the surface is the flux of the vector field ρv through that surface, where ρ is the density of water drops and v represents the velocity of the water. Clearly, the angle between v and the surface is essential in determining the flux. To specify the orientation of the surface, a vector A is defined so that its magnitude is the surface area A in units of square metres and its direction is perpendicular to the surface. The rate at which raindrops pass through the surface is ρv cos θA, where θ is the angle between v and A. Using vector notation, the flux is ρv · A. For the magnetic field, the amount of flux through a small area represented by the vector dA is given by B · dA. For a circuit consisting of a single turn of wire, adding the contributions from the entire surface that is surrounded by the wire gives the magnetic flux Φ of equation (43). The rate of change of this flux is the induced electromotive force. The units of magnetic flux are webers, with one weber equaling one tesla per square metre. Finally, the minus sign in equation (43) indicates the direction of the induced electromotive force and hence of any induced current. The magnetic flux through the circuit generated by the induced current is in whatever direction will keep the total flux in the circuit from changing. The minus sign in equation (43) is an example of Lenz’s law for magnetic systems. This law, deduced by the Russian-born physicist Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, states that “what happens is that which opposes any change in the system.”
Faraday’s law is valid regardless of the process that causes the magnetic flux to change. It may be that a magnet is moved closer to a circuit or that a circuit is moved closer to a magnet. Figure 4 shows a magnet brought near a conducting ring and gives the direction of the induced current and field, thus illustrating both Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws. Another alternative is that the circuit may change in size in a fixed external magnetic field or, as in the case of alternating-current generation, that the circuit may be a coil of conducting wire rotating in a magnetic field so that the flux Φ varies sinusoidally in time.
The magnetic flux Φ through a circuit has to be considered carefully in the application of Faraday’s law given in equation (43). For example, if a circuit consists of a coil with five closely spaced turns and if ϕ is the magnetic flux through a single turn, then the value of Φ for the five-turn circuit that must be used in Faraday’s law is Φ = 5ϕ. If the five turns are not the same size and closely spaced, the problem of determining Φ can be quite complex.
Self-inductance and mutual inductance
The self-inductance of a circuit is used to describe the reaction of the circuit to a changing current in the circuit, while the mutual inductance with respect to a second circuit describes the reaction to a changing current in the second circuit. When a current i1 flows in circuit 1, i1 produces a magnetic field B1; the magnetic flux through circuit 1 due to current i1 is Φ11. Since B1 is proportional to i1, Φ11 is as well. The constant of proportionality is the self-inductance L1 of the circuit. It is defined by the equation
As indicated earlier, the units of inductance are henrys. If a second circuit is present, some of the field B1 will pass through circuit 2 and there will be a magnetic flux Φ21 in circuit 2 due to the current i1. The mutual inductance M21 is given by
The magnetic flux in circuit 1 due to a current in circuit 2 is given by Φ12 = M12i2. An important property of the mutual inductance is that M21 = M12. It is therefore sufficient to use the label M without subscripts for the mutual inductance of two circuits.
The value of the mutual inductance of two circuits can range from +√L1L2 to −√L1L2, depending on the flux linkage between the circuits. If the two circuits are very far apart or if the field of one circuit provides no magnetic flux through the other circuit, the mutual inductance is zero. The maximum possible value of the mutual inductance of two circuits is approached as the two circuits produce B fields with increasingly similar spatial configurations.
If the rate of change with respect to time is taken for the terms on both sides of equation (44), the result is dΦ11/dt = L1di1/dt. According to Faraday’s law, dΦ11/dt is the negative of the induced electromotive force. The result is the equation frequently used for a single inductor in an AC circuit—i.e.,
The phenomenon of self-induction was first recognized by the American scientist Joseph Henry. He was able to generate large and spectacular electric arcs by interrupting the current in a large copper coil with many turns. While a steady current is flowing in a coil, the energy in the magnetic field is given by 1/2Li2. If both the inductance L and the current i are large, the amount of energy is also large. If the current is interrupted, as, for example, by opening a knife-blade switch, the current and therefore the magnetic flux through the coil drop quickly. Equation (46) describes the resulting electromotive force induced in the coil, and a large potential difference is developed between the two poles of the switch. The energy stored in the magnetic field of the coil is dissipated as heat and radiation in an electric arc across the space between the terminals of the switch. Due to advances in superconducting wires for electromagnets, it is possible to use large magnets with magnetic fields of several teslas for temporarily storing electric energy as energy in the magnetic field. This is done to accommodate short-term fluctuations in the consumption of electric power.
A transformer is an example of a device that uses circuits with maximum mutual induction. Figure 5 illustrates the configuration of a typical transformer. Here, coils of insulated conducting wire are wound around a ring of iron constructed of thin isolated laminations or sheets. The laminations minimize eddy currents in the iron. Eddy currents are circulatory currents induced in the metal by the changing magnetic field. These currents produce an undesirable by-product—heat in the iron. Energy loss in a transformer can be reduced by using thinner laminations, very “soft” (low-carbon) iron and wire with a larger cross section, or by winding the primary and secondary circuits with conductors that have very low resistance. Unfortunately, reducing the heat loss increases the cost of transformers. Transformers used to transmit and distribute power are commonly 98 to 99 percent efficient. While eddy currents are a problem in transformers, they are useful for heating objects in a vacuum. Eddy currents are induced in the object to be heated by surrounding a relatively nonconducting vacuum enclosure with a coil carrying a high-frequency alternating current.
In a transformer, the iron ensures that nearly all the lines of B passing through one circuit also pass through the second circuit and that, in fact, essentially all the magnetic flux is confined to the iron. Each turn of the conducting coils has the same magnetic flux; thus, the total flux for each coil is proportional to the number of turns in the coil. As a result, if a source of sinusoidally varying electromotive force is connected to one coil, the electromotive force in the second coil is given by
Thus, depending on the ratio of N2 to N1, the transformer can be either a step-up or a step-down device for alternating voltages. For many reasons, including safety, generation and consumption of electric power occur at relatively low voltages. Step-up transformers are used to obtain high voltages before electric power is transmitted, since for a given amount of power, the current in the transmission lines is much smaller. This minimizes energy lost by resistive heating of the conductors.
Faraday’s law constitutes the basis for the power industry and for the transformation of mechanical energy into electric energy. In 1821, a decade before his discovery of magnetic induction, Faraday conducted experiments with electric wires rotating around compass needles. This earlier work, in which a wire carrying a current rotated around a magnetized needle and a magnetic needle was made to rotate around a wire carrying an electric current, provided the groundwork for the development of the electric motor.