Practise explaining forces between parallel current-carrying wires, determining attraction or repulsion from current directions and linking the interaction to the other wire’s…
Two long parallel current-carrying wires are placed near to each other in a vacuum.
Explain why these wires exert a magnetic force on each other. You may draw a labelled diagram if you wish.
current in wire creates magnetic field around wire
B1
(each) wire sits in the magnetic field created by the other
B1
(for each wire,) current / wire is perpendicular to magnetic field (due to other wire), (so) experiences a (magnetic) force
B1