How are magnetic fields made from electricity?

1 Answer
Jul 26, 2015

Electric currents produce magnetic fields in the space. If you are familiar with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, a brief explanation of how this happens is given below.

Explanation:

From Maxwell's EM theory, we know that changing electric fields give rise to magnetic fields and changing magnetic fields give rise to electric fields.

Since, we know that an electric current is the flow of a certain amount of electric charge through a particular region in some specified time, it is reasonable to expect that as the charges flow, the electric fields associated with them also move. The changing electric fields in space, generate magnetic fields.

Since, the change is steady, the magnetic field so generated is steady as well.

If time varying electric currents are present, unsteady magnetic fields (which may further generate electric fields) are produced and the situation gets complicated.