Parallel current sheets with a resistive termination

ID: parallel-current-sheets-with-a-resistive-termination

Two broad perfect conductors of width , separated by gap , carry opposite steady electric currents and connect through a terminating resistor . Away from edges, Ampère's circuital law and the superposition principle give gap magnetic field magnitude . Each conductor is an equipotential, and Ohm's law sets their electric potential difference to . Planar symmetry and charge-free Gauss's law then give uniform gap electric field magnitude . Injection parallel to the upper current makes the electric and magnetic Lorentz forces opposite. Their cancellation selects speed independent of nonzero electric charge and of operating current; nonrelativistic kinetic energy is .

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