When a current carrying conductor is placed in a magnetic field, the conductor experiences a force in a direction perpendicular to both the direction of magnetic field and the direction of current flowing in the conductor. This force is also called Lorentz force.
The direction of this force can be found out either by Fleming’s left hand rule or by right hand palm rule. The magnetic force is
Where B= indensity of magnetic field
i= current in the conductor
l = length of the conductor and
θ = angle between the length of conductor and direction of magnetic field.
Case :
(i) If θ = 90º or sin θ = 1 then F = ilB(maximum)
Therefore, force will be maximum when the conductor carrying current is perpendicular to magnetic field.
(ii) If θ = 0º or sin θ = 0,
Then F = ilB × 0 = 0
Thus, the force will be zero, when the current carrying conductor is parallel to the field.
