Cross product
When dealing with wires in B fields we make things simple by only considering examples where the field is perpendicular to the wire so that field, current and force are mutually perpendicular and Flemings LHR can be applied. We use the equation F = BIL to find the force but what we should really use is the vector expression
This is the cross product which is a vector perpendicular to the plane containing the wire and field. You can do cross product in GeoGebra so I thought it might be interesting to see what it looked like in 3D.
Warning: Turning your left hand to match these examples could result in injury.
- Right click and drag to rotate the view.
- Left click and drag the end of the B field and current to change their size and orientation.
- multiple clicks on a point will change from horizontal adjustment to vertical.