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Ampere's Law

Who shall teach thee, unless it be thine own eyes?

Euripides (480?-406? BC)

To characterize a Hall probe for magnetic field measurements. To develop an operational
understanding of a line integral and to examine the operation of Ampere's Law.

At first glance Ampere's Law,

! !
! • ds = µ 0 I
B (1)

just seems to be a complicated way to relate a magnetic field to a current. We are instructed to
divide an imaginary closed curve into equal segments of length d s . Compute the dot products
! !
B • ds for all the segments, add them up, and we get a number proportional to the total current I
through the surface that spans the closed curve. The law becomes odder when you think about it
more carefully. Most obviously, the integral does not depend on the path chosen, but only on the
current encircled. Further, the current that appears on the right hand side need not be the only
source of magnetic fields along the path. Somehow the field produced by other currents does not
contribute to the integral. Finally, it is only the net current through the spanning surface that is
important. If we choose a path so that the current loops through it in opposite directions, the right
hand side will be zero even though there is field along the path and a current is encircled. In this
experiment we will see how these results come about.
The instrument we will use to measure magnetic fields is called a Hall probe. The Hall
effect is a potential difference which appears at right angles to the current flow when a conductor
is immersed in a magnetic field. The potential is a consequence of the Lorentz force, acting on
the charge carriers, so it is linearly proportional to the component of the applied field normal to
both the current and the line between the sensing electrodes. By finding the orientation that gives
the maximum Hall voltage we can determine the magnitude and direction of B .
Hall control

13.8 V supply

Hall probe supply DMM
Fig. 1 Overall layout of apparatus for Ampere's Law measurements.

We will study the fields produced by one or two coils, mounted on a wooden plotting
surface, as sketched in Fig. 1. The desired path can be marked off on a piece of paper cut to fit
around the coils, and a Hall probe used to determine the dot product. By being a bit clever we
can calibrate the Hall output relative to the current in the coil, and thereby carry out a
quantitative test of Eq. 1.
The coils we will study are mounted on a wooden plotting table. Current is provided by a
fixed 13.8 V supply. The Hall probe is powered from the adjustable low-voltage supply, which
should be set for 8 V output before the Hall control box is plugged into it. Use the DMM to
measure the Hall voltage output from the control box. The Hall element itself is mounted in a
plastic box designed to place the Hall probe at the center of the coil diameter when the box is
standing with the longest dimension vertical on the plotting table.

Hall probe set-up

The first job is to zero the Hall probe output when no magnetic field is present. Put the
plastic probe box inside the magnetic shield and adjust the zero control until the DMM reads as
close to zero as you can manage. When you remove the shield you should be able to detect the
effect of earth's field on the readings.
Now connect either coil and the 0.5 ! resistor in series with the 13.8 V power supply, so
that the same current will flow through the coil and resistor, and turn on the supply. Put the Hall
probe in the center of the energized coil and observe how the output changes as you rotate the
probe relative to the field. The reading on the DMM should vary from nearly zero to a maximum
of about 0.5 to 1.0V. If this doesn’t occur, check that there is current through the coils by
measuring the voltage drop across the resistor and that the Hall probe is getting 8 V input from
the small power supply. Consult the instructor if you cannot get a satisfactory signal.
The manufacturer claims that the probe has been designed to measure the component of
the magnetic field normal to the surface of the white ceramic sensor chip. Knowing that the field
of the coil must be normal to the plane of the coil, check that this claim is reasonable.

PHYS 112 Ampere's Law 2

Single coil energized
To evaluate the left hand side of Eq. 1, cut a piece of paper to fit around the coils and
draw a closed path on the paper. Mark off equal distances of about 1 cm along the chosen path.
These intervals will approximate the small intervals d s in the line integral.
Recall that the output of the Hall sensor is proportional to Bcos!, where ! is the angle
between B and the normal to the probe surface. This means that when the normal to the probe
surface is parallel to d s , the Hall output is linearly proportional to the desired dot product. All
we need to do is line up the probe at each mark, and add up the readings to get a number
proportional to the value of the line integral. (Don't forget to zero the probe inside the magnetic
shield before starting measurements.)
To make a quantitative comparison in situations where the left hand side of Eq. 1 is not
zero, we must calibrate the Hall probe output. An easy way to do this is to note that the field at
the center of the coil is given by

B0 = µ0 NIc / 2R (2)

when the coil has N turns each carrying current Ic and average radius R. For a path which
encircles one side of the coil the total current appearing in Ampere's Law is NIc, which can be
found from Eq. 2, substituted into Eq. 1, and rearranged to yield

1 ! !
! B • d s = 2R (3)

This means that we can add up the contributions around the path, divide by the Hall reading at
the center of the coil, and compare the result with 2R to verify Eq. 1. For our coils, R = 12.1 cm.
Carry out this procedure for several paths in the vicinity of the coil. It would be of
interest to try paths which encircle one side, both sides and neither side of the coil. Provide
diagrams of the paths in your report, and describe how various parts of the path contribute to the
final sum. Are the overall integrals quantitatively consistent with Eq. 3?

Normalization and data for two-coil geometry

You can do a similar exercise for the more complicated situation where both coils are
energized, but you will need to know how much the current is reduced because the two coils
together have more resistance than one alone. Before dismantling the single coil connection,
measure the voltage across the 0.5 ! resistor and call it V1. Now connect the 0.5 ! resistor and

PHYS 112 Ampere's Law 3

the two coils in series with the 13.8 V power supply so that the same current will flow through
all four components. Measure the new voltage across the 0.5 ! resistor and call it V2. Determine
if the currents in the coils are flowing in the same or opposite directions by using the Hall probe
to find out if the fields tend to add or to cancel on the coil axis at the mid plane between the
For a path which encircles one side of one coil we would get a relation like Eq. 3, except
that the factor B0 must be smaller because the current is less and B0 is proportional to current.
The voltage across the 0.5 ! resistor is also proportional to current, so the new factor must be

B0! = B (4)
V1 0

Using this value you can deduce relations like Eq. 3 for paths which encircle parts of one, both or
neither coil. You could also repeat the integration along one of the paths you used before to see if
the results are consistent.

PHYS 112 Ampere's Law 4