Describe the activity that shows that a current-carrying conductor experiences a force perpendicular to its length and the external magnetic field. How does Fleming’s left-hand rule help us to find the direction of the force acting on the current carrying conductor?

The activity to demonstrate that a current carrying conductor experiences a force perpendicular to its length and the external magnetic field can be explained as follows:

Activity: To show the effect of magnetic field on current-carrying conductor

Materials Required: For this, we need to take a small aluminum rod, a horse-shoe magnet, battery, plug key, wires and a stand.

1. Suspend an aluminum rod horizontally from the stand and two wires at the ends of it are tied. The wires are connected to a Rheostat, battery and a key so that a circuit is completed,

2. Place a horse shoe magnet in such a manner that the aluminum rod is between the poles of magnet.

Assume that the above the aluminum rod is South pole of the magnet and below, north pole of the magnet. Insert the plug key and current is supplied to the rod.

Observation: the aluminum rod is deflected towards the left direction

On changing the direction of current, the rod is deflection towards the right direction.

Hence, it demonstrates that a current carrying conductor experiences a force perpendicular to its length and the external magnetic field

The direction of the magnetic field can be find out with the help of Fleming’s left-hand rule. Let current is moving in anticlockwise direction, then the direction of magnetic field will be in clockwise direction i.e. at the top of the loop whereas vice-versa in case of clockwise direction of current.