Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Catapult Description of Magnetic Fields and Forces

Research

Electronic data

  • Catapult Description of Magnetic Fields and Forces

    Rights statement: Copyright 2019 American Institute of Physics. The following article https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/10.0001840 This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

    Accepted author manuscript, 274 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Catapult Description of Magnetic Fields and Forces

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Published
Close
More...
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2/09/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Physics Teacher
Volume58
Number of pages2
Pages (from-to)416-417
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In many high school teaching materials the force on a current-carrying wire in a magnetic field is discussed using an idea based on a so-called “catapult field” (cf. Fig. 1), an engaging depiction of magnetic forces, albeit one which, to the best of our knowledge, has neither been used in college-level educational material or scrutinized in academic journals. Here we examine carefully the physical basis of the “catapult field” concept, and find both its accuracy and utility seriously questionable.

Bibliographic note

Copyright 2019 American Institute of Physics. The following article https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/10.0001840 This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.