Problem #0181 Electricity & Magnetism Sub-menu Problem #0183 Chapters Chapters

452.

Problem 34.57 (RHK)

The magnetic dipole moment of the Earth is . We may assume that this is produced by charges flowing in the molten outer core of the Earth and that the radius of the circular path is 3500 km. We have to calculate the required current.

Solution:             Click For PDF Version

The magnetic dipole moment of a current carrying closed planar loop is

,

where is the current flowing in the loop and is the area enclosed by it.

As the magnetic dipole moment of the Earth,

, and the area enclosed by the current loop

,

the required current