Finding the Magnetic Field from a Current Carrying Loop of Wire

Cody Goolsby

Department of Physics, University of Southern Maine

96 Falmouth Street, Portland, ME 04104-9300
(Dated: October 12, 2011)
One might nd it of interest to know the magnetic eld produced by a loop of wire carrying an electric current.
Lets rst examine the most rudimentary case, the magnetic eld along the central axis of a loop of wire.
Fig. 1 gives a general picture of such a loop carrying a current, I, and the magnetic eld,

B, it produces a distance
z from the center of the loop at point P. Using the Biot-Savart Law,
d

B =

0
I
4
d

r
r
2
, (1)
lets nd the magnetic eld along the central axis of the loop. First, break down the eld into horizontal and
vertical components. As can be seen in Fig. 1 the horizontal components cancel each other out, since the horizontal
component of the loop 180

opposite the loop has the same magnitude but opposite direction. This leaves us with
only the vertical components which can simply be added together. Since we only care about the vertical component
of the eld, lets nd out how it relates to the total eld, d

B,
cos =
d

B
z
d

B
. (2)
This leaves us with,
d

B
z
= d

Bcos (3)
FIG. 1: Magnetic eld, d

B, a distance r from a loop of wire carrying a current, I.

2
Thus our revamped Biot-Savart Equation is
d

B
z
=

0
I
4
d

r
r
2
cos , (4)
This leaves us with three unknowns: the cross product, r, and cos . The cross product is d

l sin . , in this
instance, will always be 90

, leaving us with only d

l. r from Fig. 1 is evidently,

r
2
= R
2
+z
2
. (5)
And nally, again from Fig. 1 we can see that cos is
cos =
R
r
=
R

R
2
+z
2
(6)
Plugging these back into Eq. 5 we nd,
d

B
z
=

0
I
4
R
(R
2
+z
2
)
3/2
dl, (7)
Now integrate along dl or around the loop to obtain the magnetic eld,
_
d

B
z
=

0
I
4
R
(R
2
+z
2
)
3/2
_
dl, (8)
which reduces to,

B
z
=

0
I
4
R
(R
2
+z
2
)
3/2
(2R), (9)

B
z
=

0
IR
2
2(R
2
+z
2
)
3/2
, (10)
What will the magnetic eld look like at z=0?

B
z=0
=

0
I
2R
(11)
For a radius of one meter and current of an ampere we have at z = 0,

B
z=0
= 6.3 10
7
T (12)
What will the eld look like as z ?

B
z
= lim
z

0
IR
2
2(R
2
+z
2
)
3/2
(13)

B
z
= 0 (14)
Now that we know the eld along the central axis, lets next consider the eld anywhere. To make our job easier,
lets set the point in space were intersted in, point P, along the y-axis. To determine the magnetic eld, we will again
use the Biot-Savart Law:
3
FIG. 2: Magnetic eld,

B along the z-axis of a loop of wire with radius 1 meter and current of 1 Amp.
FIG. 3: Magnetic eld, d

B, a distance r from a loop of wire carrying a current, I.

d

B =

0
I
4
d

r
r
2
. (15)
Unlike in our previous example, the cross product, d

r, does not nicely reduce down to something easily calculat-

able. Instead this time we must work out the cross product in full. First swith from the unit vector, r, to the vector,
r, that is
4
r = r r = r =
r
r
. (16)
Substituting this back into Eq. 232, we nd
d

B =

0
I
4
d

l r
r
3
. (17)
The cartesian coordinates of a point on the wire, W, are
x = Rcos , y = Rsin , z = 0, (18)
their derivatives with respect to are
dx = Rsin d, dy = Rcos d, dz = 0. (19)
The coordinates at point P are (0, y, z), thus the distance from P to W is
P(x, y, z) W(x, y, z) =(Rcos , y Rsin , z). (20)
These are the cooridnates for r. The coordinates for d

l are
d

l = dx x +dy y +dz z, (21)

plugging in the dierentials from Eq. 2343 we have,
d

l = (Rsin d) x + (Rcos d) y + (0) z. (22)

Thus, d

l r is
d

l r =

x y z
Rsin d Rcos d 0
Rcos y Rsin z

The components of the resulting cross product are

d

l r = (Rz cos d) x (Rz sin d) y + [(Rsin d)(y Rsin ) (Rcos d)(Rcos )] z (23)
d

l r = (Rz cos d) x + (Rz sin d) y + (R

2
Ry sin )d z (24)
Now we must gure out the magnitude of r, but since we know the components from Eq. 2343 we simply square
each component, add them together, and take the square root,
|r| =
_
r
2
x
+r
2
y
+r
2
z
(25)
|r| =
_
(Rcos )
2
+ (y Rsin )
2
+z
2
(26)
5
|r| =
_
R
2
cos
2
+y
2
2yRsin +R
2
sin
2
+z
2
(27)
|r| =
_
R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin (28)
Finally, we can plug Eq. 343 and Eq. 343 back into Eq. 343 and solve for the magnetic eld in terms of cartesian
components,
d

B
x
=

0
I
4
Rz cos d
(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin )
3
2
x. (29)
d

B
y
=

0
I
4
Rz sin d
(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin )
3
2
y. (30)
d

B
z
=

0
I
4
R
2
Ry sin d
(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin )
3
2
z. (31)
As you can see the only integral that is easy to do is

B
x
,

B
x
=

0
IRz
4
x
_
2
0
cos
(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin )
3
2
d. (32)
Performing a u-substitution we nd,

B
x
=

0
Iz
4y
[(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin 2)
1/2
(R
2
+y
2
+z
2
2yRsin 0)
1/2
] x. (33)
But since the sin of 0 and 2 are both zero,

B
x
= 0. Leaving us with

B
y
and

B
z
to still calculate.

B
y
and

B
z
are
not quite as easy as

B
x
in fact their solutions include elliptic integrals of the rst and second kind. The incomplete
elliptic integral of the rst kind is
F(, k) =
_

0
d
_
1 k
2
sin
2

, (34)
the complete elliptic integral of the rst kind is
F(

2
, k) = K(k) =
_
/2
0
d
_
1 k
2
sin
2

. (35)
The incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind is
E(, k) =
_

0
_
1 k
2
sin
2
d. (36)
with the complete elliptic integral of the second kind being
E(

2
, k) = E(k) =
_
/2
0
_
1 k
2
sin
2
d. (37)
6
Plugging

B
y
and

B
z
into Mathematica we nd,

B
y
=
z
y

m2y (m+ 2Ry)

_
m
_
E
_

4
, k
_
+ E
_
3
4
, k
__
(m+ 2Ry)
_
F
_

4
, k
_
+ F
_
3
4
, k
___
y (38)

B
z
=
1

m2Ry (m+ 2Ry)

_
_
2R
2
m
_
_
E
_

4
, k
_
+ E
_
3
4
, k
__
+ (m+ 2Ry)
_
F
_

4
, k
_
+ F
_
3
4
, k
___
z (39)
where
m = R
2
+y
2
+z
2
and k =
4Ry
R
2
2Ry +y
2
+z
2
.

Electronic address: cody.goolsby@maine.edu