mag fields pre lab

Magnetic Field Pre-lab Exercise

last updated July 29, 2003

You should be familiar with most the equipment we are using in this lab. Most of the equipment we have used in previous labs. I assume that you have studied magnetic fields in the lecture part of the course. Please just try the SimpleFieldMap program below.

In the magnetic field mapping lab, we will be plotting the magnetic field of: 1) a bar magnet and 2) a solenoid. This exercise is designed to show you how to map magnetic field lines and to help you visuallize the field of a solenoid. Both of these have an ideal field (outside of them) of a perfect dipole, one of the simulated fields in the field mapping program below.

Questions:

Using the applet at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jmcfatri/Java/SimpleFieldMap.html , determine and print out the magnetic field maps of:

(a) a constant field in the y direction,
(b) a magnetic dipole (this is the "known" field of an ideal bar magnet! )
(c) an infinitely long wire coming out of the page
(d) an infinitely long wire going into the page.

Instructions for the applet: The applet should be self-explanatory. Simply select the field you want from the list at the bottom of the screen and start moving the compass around. Every time you drop the compass an arrow will be left behind, indicating the direction of the compass where you dropped it.

You cannot print the screen by using the print option in your browser! Instead you must print by doing a screen dump.
(Windows instructions)
1) Press ALT - PrintScreen. (PrintScreen is a key at the upper right hand corner of your keyboard.)
2) Go to MSPaint under Start-->Accessories. Alternatively, you can also use any word processing program or graphics program.
3) Under the Edit menu, select Paste.
4) Under the File menu, select Print to print the image in MSPaint.

Mac instructions: please see user manual.. roughly the same procedure, but printScreen is called something else.