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The Daily Insight

How do you determine the direction of magnetic field between two wires?

Author

David Craig

Updated on April 04, 2026

Direction of magnetic field →B can be determined using with Ampère’s right-hand grip rule. If you place your right-hand thumb in the direction of the current in the wire, bent fingers show the direction of the magnetic field lines.

What is the magnetic field between two parallel wires with opposite currents?

Similarly, if you have two parallel wires with current traveling in opposite directions, as you do in the series circuit, then the magnetic fields of the two wires will be traveling in the same direction at the point at which they intersect, and therefore repel each other.

What is the magnetic force between two parallel wires?

The official definition of the ampere is: One ampere of current through each of two parallel conductors of infinite length, separated by one meter in empty space free of other magnetic fields, causes a force of exactly 2 × 10−7 N/m on each conductor.

What is magnetic field direction?

• The direction the magnetic field produced by a. moving charge is perpendicular to the direction of motion. The direction of the force due to a magnetic field is perpendicular to the direction of motion.

What happens when two magnetic fields are pointing in opposite directions?

When two like-poles point together, the arrows from the two magnets point in OPPOSITE directions and the field lines cannot join up. So the magnets will push apart (repel).

Why two parallel wires carrying current in opposite directions repel each other?

The direction of magnetic field on the conductor is determined by Fleming’s right hand rule. Thus, gives us that the direction of magnetic field turns out to be opposite to each other. This results in repulsion of the conductors carrying current in opposite directions relatively and vice versa.

How do you find B in physics?

The Biot-Savart Law can be used to determine the magnetic field strength from a current segment. For the simple case of an infinite straight current-carrying wire it is reduced to the form B=μ0I2πr B = μ 0 I 2 π r .

When a magnetic field is parallel to a current carrying wire what is the force on the wire?

Figure 2. The force on a current-carrying wire in a magnetic field is F = IlB sin θ. Its direction is given by RHR-1.