Ampere's Law describes the direction of a magnetic field around a current-carrying wire. The magnetic field generated by an electric current flowing in a conductor is always at right angles to the direction of the current flow.
This is always demonstrable by Ampere’s Right Hand Thumb Rule.
Our apparatus consists of a thick brass wire bent at right angles to form two straight sections, one horizontal and one vertical.
The ends of this wire have screw terminals for attaching wires to connect the apparatus to a current source.
This is arranged on a clear plastic base.
Also included in this apparatus are:
- 1 large compass with a diameter of 45mm and
- 6 small compasses, each with a diameter of 16mm.
Students can investigate and get a better understanding of the effect of the direction and the intensity of the current and the resulting magnetic field that is created around a wire. They can correlate it with Ampere’s Right Hand Thumb rule.