Conductor in Magnetic Field

When a wire is hanged on two conductors and it carries a current, it deflects from the verticle in homogenous magnetic field. It is caused by a magnetic force. The magnetic force on a current-carrying wire is perpendicular to both the wire and the magnetic field. The deflection happens because of the combined effects of the magnetic fields of the wire and the magnets. A way of producing motion from electricity was found in 1821 by Michael Faraday. This simple foundation has become the basis of all our electric motors. The maximum force occurs when the current and the field are at right-angles to each other and the motion is then at right angles to both the field and the current. The bigger the current and the stronger the magnetic field the greater the force on the wire.

J .A. Fleming found a simple way of finding the direction of motion. It is called Fleming's Left Hand Rule. If the thumb, first finger and second finger of the left hand are placed at right angles to each other then the first finger gives the magnetic Field (N to S), the second finger gives the current direction and the thumb gives the direction of motion.