Biot-Savart law

The last lecture was all about how moving charges respond to
magnetic fields. This lecture is all about how moving charges
create magnetic fields!

In 1820, the Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted gave a

lecture-demonstration about how an electric current in a wire
generates heat. For another part of the demonstration, he had a
compass nearby. While lecturing, he noticed to his surprise
that every time the electric current was switched
on, the compass needle moved. He said nothing
but, after a few months of experiments, published
his discovery (in Latin) with no explanation.
Biot-Savart law

Within months, Jean-Baptiste Biot and Félix Savart had made

careful quantitative experiments on the force exerted by an
electric current on a nearby magnet. They summarized their
results in the law named after them.
dB
r

ds
Biot-Savart law

Each current element ds contributes to the magnetic field B(r)

 0 I ds  rˆ
a contribution dB  , where μ0 = 4π × 10–7 T·m/A .
4 r 2

dB
r “the permeability of free space”

ds
 Biot-Savart law

Each current element ds contributes to the magnetic field B(r)

 0 I ds  rˆ
a contribution dB  , where μ0 = 4π × 10–7 T·m/A .
4 r 2
• The vector dB is perpendicular to ds and to r.
dB
r • The vector dB is proportional to I, to 1/r2
and to |ds|.
• When ds and r are parallel, dB vanishes.
• When ds and r are not parallel, dB is perpendicular
to both of them, according to the right-hand rule, and
proportional to the sine of the ds → r angle.

ds
Right-hand rule (for the Biot-Savart law):

ds

r dB
Biot-Savart law

Example 1: A point makes angles θ1 and θ2 with the ends of a

straight wire carrying current I. The distance of the point from
the wire is a. What is B?

y Answer: Introduce x- and y-axes. Note that

dB r = (0,a) – (x,0) = (–x, a), that a = r sin θ and
thus r = a/sin θ. Note also that x = –r cos θ =
–a cot θ, so dx = a dθ /sin2 θ.

a r

θ1 θ θ2
x
ds = dx
Biot-Savart law

Example 1: A point makes angles θ1 and θ2 with the ends of a

straight wire carrying current I. The distance of the point from
the wire is a. What is B?

y Answer: The magnetic field is the integral

dB
 0 ds  rˆ 0 sin 

B(r )  dB  I
4  r 2
zIˆ
4  r 2
dx

but dx/r2 = dθ/a, so

a r

θ1 θ θ2
x
ds = dx
Biot-Savart law

Example 1: A point makes angles θ1 and θ2 with the ends of a

straight wire carrying current I. The distance of the point from
the wire is a. What is B?

y Answer: The magnetic field is the integral

dB 0 2
B(r )  zˆ I 
4 a 1
sin  d

0
 zˆ I  cos1  cos 2  .
r 4 a
a

θ1 θ θ2
x
ds = dx
Biot-Savart law

Example 2: What is B if the wire is straight and infinitely

long?
Answer: Then θ1 = 0 and θ2 = π so
0
y B(r )  z I
ˆ  cos1  cos 2 
4 a
dB
0
 zˆ I .
2 a

a r

θ1 θ θ2
x
ds = dx
Biot-Savart law

In this example, a different version of the right-hand rule is

useful: If your thumb shows the direction of the current, your
fingers curl in the direction of the magnetic field.

y
dB

a r

θ1 θ θ2
x
ds = dx
Biot-Savart law

Example 3: What is B a distance x along the symmetry axis of

a circular loop of radius R carrying current I?

Answer: The magnitude of dB is dB = μ0 I ds/4πr2 , where

r2 = x2 + R2, but only the x-component of dB survives. We
multiply dB by cos θ = R/r and replace ds by 2πR to get
 0 IR 2
y B .
2 2 3/ 2
r 2 [x  R ]
θ dB
R
θ x