Derivation of Lorentz Force for Circular Conductor

The Lorentz force equation:

=I F L B

Differentiate both sides to find the force due to an infinitesimal length: = I dl dF B Now we can integrate along a path C to find the force due to a current I flowing along that path: dl = I dl = dF F B
C C

We define:

B= B z z = cos dl y sin x
pi 2

Now, by making the replacements and evaluating the cross-product: =I F rd y sin x] B [ cos
2 pi 2

= I B z [ cos F x sin y]r d

2

We are only interested in the x-component of F (although it can be shown that Fy=0):
pi 2

F x = I B z cos r d =2 r I B z
pi 2

The above gives the force in terms of the coil radius. If we prefer to express the force in terms of the total wire length, we start by noting that the total length of the semicircular segment is l = r , so we can define a force per unit length dividing F by l: Fx 2 = I Bz l Which gives us an expression for the force due to a circular coil of total length l: 2 F x= I B z l 2 l as compared to a straight length of wire. This can be generalized to an arbitrary wire shape by the proper selection of the path C. We note that for this geometry, the effective length of the wire is