What happens to the magnetic field strength if the distance from a long straight wire is tripled?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the magnetic field strength if the distance from a long straight wire is tripled?
Increases by 3 times
Decreases by 3 times
Decreases by 9 times
Remains the same
The magnetic field strength decreases with the square of the distance from the wire.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the magnetic field strength if the distance from a long straight wire is tripled?
Solution: The magnetic field strength decreases with the square of the distance from the wire.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand that a long straight wire creates a magnetic field around it.
Step 2: Know that the strength of this magnetic field depends on the distance from the wire.
Step 3: Remember the rule: the magnetic field strength decreases as you move away from the wire.
Step 4: If you triple the distance from the wire, you are moving further away.
Step 5: The strength of the magnetic field decreases by the square of the distance. This means if you triple the distance, the strength becomes 1/(3^2) or 1/9 of the original strength.
Step 6: Conclude that tripling the distance reduces the magnetic field strength to one-ninth of what it was.
