Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/section-b/10/a/solution

In magnetostatics, Ampère's circuital law is
It relates magnetic circulation around a closed curve to the steady current through a spanning surface. It is especially useful when symmetry makes the tangential field constant on a chosen path: an infinite straight wire gives , while an ideal long solenoid gives approximately inside.
The Biot-Savart law gives the field contribution from the actual current geometry:
The cross product determines the direction by the right-hand rule. Integrating around a circular loop of radius gives at its centre. A finite wire segment can also be integrated directly, even though it lacks enough symmetry for an Ampère-loop shortcut. The full steady-current circuit includes a return path; a segment calculation specifies that segment's contribution.

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