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Physics LibreTexts

5: Electromagnetic Forces

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  • 5.1: Forces on Free Charges and Currents
    This page covers the Lorentz force equation, detailing electromagnetic forces on charged particles, crucial for electrical phenomena. It highlights stationary and moving charges in electronic devices and cathode-ray tubes, where electrons gain kinetic energy. Additionally, it explores cyclotron motion of charged particles in magnetic fields, explaining concepts like electron cyclotron frequency and motion radius.
  • 5.2: Forces on Charges and Currents within Conductors
    This page discusses the calculation of electric and magnetic Lorentz forces on charges in conductors, including electric pressure on capacitor plates and forces on currents in wires. It explains the relationship between electric pressure, electric fields, and charge density, as well as magnetic interactions between parallel currents, employing Ampere's law and defining permeability of free space.
  • 5.3: Forces on Bound Charges within Materials
    This page explores the calculation of forces on materials through Lorentz force law, Kelvin polarization, and magnetization forces, highlighting their dependence on electric and magnetic fields. It details the effects of electric field gradients on dielectrics and the implications of magnetic dipoles for current loops, presenting expressions for force density.
  • 5.4: Forces Computed Using Energy Methods
    This page explains the relationship between force and energy in mechanics, highlighting the importance of accurate energy differentiation to prevent errors. It presents examples of electrostatic and magnetic forces, demonstrating how energy methods can efficiently calculate forces.
  • 5.5: Electric and magnetic pressure
    This page explains the computation of forces on materials due to electromagnetic pressures using Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law, focusing on the higher energy densities in magnetic systems for motors and generators. It details methods for calculating forces on dielectric slabs and magnetic slugs, emphasizing that static electromagnetic pressures arise from energy density differences.
  • 5.6: Photonic Forces
    This page discusses photonic forces resulting from electromagnetic wave interaction with objects, leading to pressure. It explains how the pressure from a magnetic field on perfect conductors is linked to energy density and the Poynting vector. The momentum of reflected photons contributes to total radiation pressure on mirrors, relevant for technologies like solar sails, which can achieve significant velocities due to this pressure.


This page titled 5: Electromagnetic Forces is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David H. Staelin (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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