I heart physics

You can find the symbol of love, the heart, by looking at the motion of a charged particle that's emitted from a hot wire in a specific electromagnetic field. The electric field is directed radially from the wire and has strength E = 1 V / m E=1~V/m everywhere. The magnetic field B = 1 T B=1~T is parallel with the wire axis. If the charged particle has a very small radial velocity with absolutely no velocity parallel to the wire direction when it escapes the wire, find how long the total length it has to travel to come back to the wire in meters .

If you plot the orbit of the particle you'll find that it looks like a heart!

Details and assumptions

  • Neglect the size of the wire.
  • The electric charge of the particle is e = 1 C e=1~C and the mass is m = 1 k g m=1~kg (just to simplify the calculations for this problem).


The answer is 32.

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2 solutions

David Mattingly Staff
May 13, 2014

The equation of motion for the electron in the polar coordinate around the wire is:

m ( 2 r ˙ θ ˙ + r θ ¨ ) = m d ( r 2 θ ˙ ) r d t = e B r ˙ = e B d r d t m d ( r 2 θ ˙ ) d t = e B r ˙ = e B d ( r 2 ) 2 d t m(2\dot{r}\dot{\theta} + r \ddot{\theta}) = m\frac{d(r^2\dot{\theta})}{rdt}= eB\dot{r}=eB\frac{dr}{dt} \Rightarrow m\frac{d(r^2\dot{\theta})}{dt}= eB\dot{r}=eB\frac{d(r^2)}{2dt}

m r 2 θ ˙ = e B r 2 2 θ ˙ = e B 2 m = ω \Rightarrow mr^2\dot{\theta} =\frac{eBr^2}{2} \Rightarrow \dot{\theta}=\frac{eB}{2m}=\omega

m ( r ¨ r θ ˙ 2 ) = e E e B r θ ˙ r ¨ + e 2 B 2 4 m 2 r = r ¨ + ω 2 r = e E r ( t ) = 4 m 2 E e B 2 R c o s ( ω t + ϕ ) m(\ddot{r}-r\dot{\theta}^2)=eE-eBr\dot{\theta} \Rightarrow \ddot{r}+\frac{e^2B^2}{4m^2}r=\ddot{r}+\omega^2 r=eE \Rightarrow r(t)=\frac{4m^2E}{eB^2}-R cos{(\omega t + \phi)}

Using the boundary condition r ( t = 0 ) = 0 r(t=0)=0 and r ˙ ( t = 0 ) = v 0 \dot{r}(t=0)=v\approx 0 we get ϕ = 0 \phi=0 and R = 4 m 2 E e B 2 R=\frac{4m^2E}{eB^2} :

r = 4 m 2 E e B 2 ( 1 cos ( ω t ) ) = 4 m 2 E e B 2 ( 1 cos θ ) r=\frac{4m^2E}{eB^2}(1-\cos{(\omega t)})=\frac{4m^2E}{eB^2}(1-\cos{\theta})

The orbit looks like a heart!

The total length is pretty easy to calculate:

s = 0 2 π ( d r 2 + r 2 d θ 2 ) 1 / 2 = 0 2 π 4 m 2 E e B 2 2 + 2 cos θ d θ = 32 m 2 E e B = 32 ( m ) s=\int_0^{2\pi} (dr^2 + r^2 d\theta^2)^{1/2} = \int_0^{2\pi} \frac{4m^2E}{eB^2}\sqrt{2+2\cos{\theta}} d\theta = \frac{32 m^2E}{eB}=32(m)

Here's how the graph looks like:

Indeed its a cardioid, how beautiful , i didnt expect to see such graph ever in physics

Mvs Saketh - 6 years, 2 months ago

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