Ampre's circuital law

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In classical electromagnetism, Ampre's circuital law, discovered by Andr-Marie Ampre in 1826,[1] relates the integrated magnetic field around a closed loop to the electric current passing through the loop. James Clerk Maxwell derived it again using hydrodynamics in his 1861 paper On Physical Lines of Forceand it is now one of the Maxwell equations, which form the basis of classical electromagnetism.
Contents
[hide]

1 Original Ampre's circuital law

o o

1.1 Integral form 1.2 Differential form

2 Note on free current versus bound current 3 Shortcomings of the original formulation of Ampre's circuital law

3.1 Displacement current

4 Extending the original law: the MaxwellAmpre equation

4.1 Proof of equivalence

5 Ampre's law in cgs units 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]Original

Ampre's circuital law

An electric current produces a magnetic field.

It relates magnetic fields to electric currents that produce them. Using Ampere's law, you can determine the magnetic field associated with a given current or current associated with a given magnetic field, providing there is no time changing electric field present. In its historically original form, Ampre's Circuital Law relates the magnetic field to its electric current source. The law can be written in two forms, the "integral form" and the "differential form". The forms are equivalent, and related by the KelvinStokes theorem. It can also be written in terms of either the B or H magnetic fields. Again, the two forms are equivalent (see the "proof" section below). Ampre's circuital law is now known to be a correct law of physics in a magnetostatic situation: The system is static except possibly for continuous steady

currents within closed loops. In all other cases the law is incorrect unless Maxwell's correction is included (see below).
[edit]Integral

form

In SI units (the version in cgs units is in a later section), the "integral form" of the original Ampre's circuital law is:[2][3]

or equivalently,

where is the closed line integral around the closed curve C; B is the magnetic B-field in teslas; H is the magnetic H-field in ampere per metre; is the vector dot product; d is an infinitesimal element (a differential) of the curve C (i.e. a vector with magnitude equal to the length of the infinitesimal line element, and direction given by the tangent to the curve C, see below); denotes an integral over the surface S enclosed by the curve C (see below; the double integral sign is meant simply to denote that the integral is two-dimensional in nature); 0 is the magnetic constant; Jf is the free current density through the surface S enclosed by the curve C (see below); J is the total current density through the surface S enclosed by the curve C, including both free and bound current (see below); dS is the vector area of an infinitesimal element of surface S (that is, a vector with magnitude equal to the area of the infinitesimal surface element, and direction

normal to surface S. The direction of the normal must correspond with the orientation of C by the right hand rule, see below for further discussion); If,enc is the net free current that penetrates through the surface S (see below); Ienc is the total net current that penetrates through the surface S, including both free and bound current (see below). There are a number of ambiguities in the above definitions that warrant elaboration. First, three of these terms are associated with sign ambiguities: the line integral could go around the loop in either direction (clockwise or counterclockwis e); the vector area dS could point in either of the two directions norm al to the surface; and Ienc is the net current passing through the surface S,

meaning the current passing through in one direction, minus the current in the other directionbut either direction could be chosen as positive. These ambiguities are resolved by the right-hand rule: With the palm of the right-hand toward the area of integration, and the indexfinger pointing along the direction of lineintegration, the outstretched thumb points in the direction that must be chosen for the vector area dS. Also the current passing in the same direction as dS must be counted as positive.

The right hand grip rule can also be used to determine the signs. Second, there are infinitely many possible surfaces S that have the curve C as their border. (Imagine a soap film on a wire loop, which can be deformed by blowing gently at it.) Which of those surfaces is to be chosen? If the loop does not lie in a single plane, for example, there is no one obvious choice. The answer is that it does not matter; it can be proven that any surface with boundary C can be chosen.
[edit]Differenti

al form

By the Kelvin Stokes theorem, this equation can also be written in a "differential form". Again, this equation only applies in the case where the electric field is constant in time; see below for the more general form. In SI units, the equation states:

where is the curl operator.

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[show]Proof that the formulations of Ampre's law in terms of free current are equivalent to the formulations involving total current.

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