• Question: How can electricity and magnetism combine to produce forces?

    Asked by anon-226286 to Sameed on 11 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Sameed Muhammed

      Sameed Muhammed answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Aha, you have just asked one of the most wonderful and fundamental questions in the study of electromagnetism!

      Electricity and magnetism interact with charged particles only. If the charge of a particle was zero, electricity and magnetism will have no effect on it.

      The electric field “pushes” a charged particle in the direction of the field (like a car on a road)
      A magnetic field “spins” a charged particle in circular motion (like a ball on a string)

      You can then combine both to produce very interesting paths (like lines, circles, spirals, pendulum etc.)

      I hope this makes some sense. Feel free to ask a follow-up question for more details 🙂

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