Lesson: Motion of Charged Particles in Uniform Magnetic Fields Physics

Students will be able to

• model an electric current as a one-dimensional beam of charged particles by using the equation , where is the current, is the charge of a particle, is the velocity of a particle, and is the number of particles in a length of the beam,
• combine the equation with the equation to obtain the force on a single electrically charged particle moving freely in a uniform magnetic field, ,
• recognize that as the direction of the instantaneous magnetic force on a freely moving charged particle in a uniform magnetic field is perpendicular to the direction of the instantaneous velocity of the particle, the particle will follow a circular path within a uniform magnetic field,
• relate the equation of the centripetal force on a particle to the magnetic force equation to show that and hence, that .