Name: maxwell’s fix for changing currents
Uploaded: 2026-07-09T14:54:47.951Z
Duration: 1 min 19 s
Channel: JoVE

K12 Standards

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North Carolina K-12 Science Standard Course of Study

9-12

Physical Science

motion-and-stability-forces-and-interactions

Motion and Stability- Forces and Interactions

PS.PSc.6.5

Displacement Current

Ampere&#x27;s law states that the line integral of a magnetic field along a closed curve equals the permeability of free space times the net current passing through the loop.
Consider a parallel plate capacitor connected with a battery in a charging condition.
Applying Ampere&#x27;s law to the shown Amperian loop with two surfaces gives two different magnetic field values, which is impossible.
As the capacitor is charging, the electric field, and hence the electric flux, increases through the bulging surface. The value of electric flux can be obtained in terms of the charge.
In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell, predicted that due to this time-varying electric field, a non-zero magnetic field is produced between the plates of the capacitor through a fictitious current called displacement current.
The expression for displacement current is given in terms of electric flux.
Thus, Ampere&#x27;s law is modified with the inclusion of an additional term for displacement current. It is known as the Ampere-Maxwell law or generalized Ampere&#x27;s law.

OpenStax. (2019). جامعة الفيزياء المجلد 2. [نسخة الويب]. تم الاسترجاع من <a href="https://openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-2/pages/16-1-maxwells-equations-and-electromagnetic-waves">https://openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-2/pages/16-1-maxwells-equations-and-electromagnetic-waves</a>

الإزاحة الجارية

Amp&#xE8;re&#x27;s law, in its usual form, does not work in places where the current changes with time and is not steady. Thus, Maxwell suggested including ...

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Education

JoVE Core

Physics

الفيزياء

Unit 1

الوحدة الأولى

Electromagnetic Induction

الحث الكهرومغناطيسي

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

المصطلحات والمفاهيم الأساسية

maxwell’s fix for changing currents

Maxwell’s correction to Ampère’s law explains how changing electric fields can create magnetic fields. The key idea is the displacement current, Id, which Maxwell added to the real conduction current, I. This extra term helps the law work when current is not steady.

The displacement current is defined using the permittivity of free space, ε0, and the electric flux, ΦE. It is not a real flow of charge. Instead, it is an added term in Maxwell’s equations that acts like current in Ampère’s law.

A changing electric field produces this effect. That means a magnetic field can appear even when no real current is present. When the displacement current is included, the modified Ampère’s law works in all situations and does not depend on which surface is used to measure the current.

Maxwell’s Fix for Changing Currents

induction

Magnetic Flux and Induced Current

Magnetic flux and induced current are linked when a magnetic field changes near a coil. Moving a bar magnet into or out of a coil induces an emf, which is an electromotive force. If the motion goes in the opposite direction, the emf has the opposite sign. Reversing the magnet poles also reverses the direction of the induced emf. The same effect appears when the coil moves instead of the magnet. Relative motion is what matters. A faster motion produces a larger emf. If the magnet and coil stay...

ampere-maxwell's law: problem-solving

Displacement Current in an RC Circuit

Displacement current in an RC circuit can be found by tracking the charging capacitor. A parallel-plate capacitor with capacitance C, plate area A, and plate separation d is connected to a resistor R and a battery of voltage V. When the current starts to flow at t = 0, the charge and voltage on the capacitor change with time. The first step is to use the RC-circuit result for the capacitor voltage at time t. With the z-axis pointing from the positive plate to the negative plate, the electric...

differential form of maxwell's equations

Maxwell’s Equations at a Point

Maxwell’s equations at a point describe how electric and magnetic fields change in space and time. They connect field behavior to charge and current density at a single location. This point-by-point form is useful when studying electromagnetic fields in detail. James Clerk Maxwell was a major physicist of the nineteenth century. He combined earlier laws of electricity and magnetism into one electromagnetic theory. The basic experimental laws came from scientists such as Oersted, Coulomb,...

dc generator

How a DC Generator Makes Current

A DC generator makes electrical energy from mechanical motion. It produces DC pulses with the same polarity, unlike an alternator, which gives sinusoidal AC current. The two machines have similar construction, but a DC generator uses a single split ring instead of a pair of slip rings. That split ring is called a commutator. It works like a rotary switch that changes the contact with the brushes after each half turn of the conducting loop. This action keeps the induced emf at the same...

magnetic damping

Eddy Currents and Magnetic Braking

Eddy currents can create strong drag on moving objects. This drag is called magnetic damping. A metallic pendulum bob swinging between the poles of a strong magnet feels this force as it enters and leaves the field, so its motion dies out quickly. The effect is much smaller for a slotted metal plate. As the plate enters the magnetic field, a changing flux induces an emf, or electromotive force. The slots limit the size of the current loops, and nearby loops can carry currents in opposite...

superconductor

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types of superconductors

Superconductors and Magnetic Levitation

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faraday's law

Magnetic Flux and Induced Emf

Faraday’s law connects magnetic flux changes to induced emf, or voltage. A change in the magnetic field or in the coil’s orientation with respect to the field can produce this voltage. Magnetic flux describes how many magnetic field lines pass through a given surface area.

lenz's law

Magnet Motion and Induced Current

Magnet motion and induced current are linked by Lenz’s law. The law says that the induced emf, or electromotive force, drives current around a wire loop in a direction that opposes the change in magnetic flux that caused it. A moving bar magnet can create this effect in a coil. If the magnet moves toward the coil, the magnetic flux increases and an induced current appears. That current produces a magnetic field that pushes against the stronger field from the magnet. The same idea works in...

motional emf

Induced Current from Changing Magnetic Flux

Induced current from changing magnetic flux depends on how a magnetic field interacts with an area. Magnetic flux changes when the field strength changes, when the area it passes through changes, or when the field turns relative to the surface. When any of these factors vary, the magnetic flux also varies. A change in area can happen in two common ways. The flux through a rectangular loop increases as the loop moves into a magnetic field. The magnetic flux through a rotating coil also changes...

faraday disk dynamo

Faraday Disk Dynamo and DC Output

A Faraday disk dynamo is a DC generator that produces an emf constant in time. It uses a conducting disk that spins at constant angular velocity in a magnetic field. The magnetic field is perpendicular to the plane of the disk. As the disk rotates, the magnetic flux changes and an emf is induced. This causes opposite charges to build up at the rim and at the center of the disk. The direction of the induced emf depends on the direction of the magnetic field and the direction of rotation. If...

induced electric fields

Faraday’s Law and Induced EMF

Faraday’s law explains how a changing magnetic flux can create an induced emf in a circuit. When current is induced, work is being done on the conduction electrons in the wire. That work must come from a source, and the source is not a battery or a magnetic field. A battery does not have to be present in a circuit for current to be induced. Magnetic fields also do not do work on moving charges. Instead, the change in magnetic flux produces an electric field in the wire. This is called an...

induced electric fields: applications

Electric Fields from Changing Magnetism

An electric field can be induced by a changing magnetic field. This induced electric field is nonconservative, which means it does not do net work when a charge moves around a closed path. That behavior is different from an electrostatic field, which comes from a fixed charge distribution. An electrostatic field is conservative, so it does no net work over a closed path. Because of this difference, electric potential can be linked to the electrostatic field, but not to the induced field. When...

eddy currents

Eddy Currents in Recycling, Brakes, and Heat

Eddy currents affect how metals move, stop, and heat up. They form only in conductors, so they are useful for separating metals from nonmetals and for other practical devices. In recycling centers, trash can be sent down a ramp under a strong magnet. Metals in the trash slow down because eddy currents resist their motion. Nonmetals keep moving, so the materials separate. This method works for metals in general, not only ferromagnetic ones. Eddy currents also help in metal detectors. A...

displacement current

Maxwell’s correction to Ampère’s law explains how changing electric fields can create magnetic fields. The key idea is the displacement current, Id, which Maxwell added to the real conduction current, I. This extra term helps the law work when current is not steady. The displacement current is defined using the permittivity of free space, ε0, and the electric flux, ΦE. It is not a real flow of charge. Instead, it is an added term in Maxwell’s equations that acts like current in Ampère’s law. <br...

significance of displacement current

Maxwell’s Fix for Charging Capacitors

Maxwell’s fix for a charging capacitor is the displacement current in Ampère’s law. A displacement current is not a flow of charge like conduction current. It comes from a changing electric field. That is why it is defined using a time-varying electric field and has its own displacement current density. Maxwell added this term to the original Ampère’s law. The result is called generalized Ampère’s law. The added displacement current term lets the law work in regions where no charges are moving.

electromagnetic fields

Electric and Magnetic Fields in Motion

Electric and magnetic fields can come from different sources, but they can act in surprisingly similar ways. Static charges create electrostatic fields. These fields are conservative, which means a test charge does no net work after moving around a complete loop. Fields made by changing magnetic fields behave differently. They are not conservative, and they do net work on a charge. That work is proportional to how fast the magnetic flux changes. These fields also do not follow Gauss’s law for...

maxwell's equation of electromagnetism

Maxwell's Equations and Light Waves

Maxwell's equations bring electricity, magnetism, and light together in one electromagnetic theory. James Clerk Maxwell was a major nineteenth-century physicist, and his work helped shape modern physics. He also made important contributions to the kinetic theory of gases, color vision, and the study of Saturn's rings. Maxwell built on earlier experiments in electricity and magnetism from Oersted, Coulomb, Gauss, and Faraday. These physicists had discovered the basic laws separately. Maxwell...

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Electric and magnetic field symmetry is a key part of Maxwell's equations. After the fields are calculated with Maxwell's four equations, the Lorentz force equation gives the force those fields exert on a charged particle moving at a certain velocity. The Lorentz force law combines the effect of the electric field and the magnetic field on the moving charge. Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law together describe electricity and magnetism. The symmetry in Maxwell's framework is easier...

electric generator: alternator

How Alternators Produce AC Power

Alternators produce alternating current by rotating a conducting loop in a magnetic field. As the loop turns inside the field, the magnetic flux through the coil changes with time. That changing flux induces an emf, or electric voltage, in the circuit. A simple alternator uses a loop placed in a uniform magnetic field. The loop connects to split rings, and brushes carry the current to the external circuit. As the loop rotates, the magnetic flux changes sinusoidally, so the induced emf also...

back emf

Motor Current and Speed Changes

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key terms and concepts

Learn how Maxwell modified Ampère’s law with displacement current to account for changing electric fields and make the law work in all situations.

Maxwell’s Fix for Changing Currents | JoVE K12

physics

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PS.Phy.5.2

Virginia  Standards of Learning

HIgh School

PS.9

PS.9.e

new-york-state-science-learning-standards

New York State Science Learning Standards

High School

HS. Forces and Interactions

HS-PS2-5.

Position and Displacement

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Average Velocity

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Instantaneous Velocity - I

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Instantaneous Velocity - II

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Average Acceleration

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Instantaneous Acceleration

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Position and Displacement Vectors

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average-and-instantaneous-velocity-vectors

Average and Instantaneous Velocity Vectors

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PS.PSc.4.1

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Drift Velocity

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Current Density

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Resistivity

When a voltage is applied to a conductor, an electrical field is generated, and charges in the conductor feel the force due to the electrical field. The ...

Resistance

When a current moves through any conductor, the conductor causes some level of difficulty for the current to flow. The measure of that difficulty is known ...

Ohm's Law

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Non-ohmic Devices

In most substances, the current flow is proportional to the voltage applied to it. A simple relationship between the values of current, voltage, and ...

Construct an explanation to compare simple series and parallel circuits in terms of Ohm's Law.

PS.PSc.6.2

Continuity Equation

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Boundary Conditions for Current Density

Current density becomes discontinuous across an interface of materials with different electrical conductivities. The normal component of the current ...

Electrical Conductivity

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Theory of Metallic Conduction

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Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain how current is affected by changes in composition, length, temperature, and diameter of wire.

PS.PSc.6.3

Magnetism

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Magnetic Fields

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Magnetic Field Lines

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Magnetic Flux

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motion-of-a-charged-particle-in-a-magnetic-field

Motion Of A Charged Particle In A Magnetic Field

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Magnetic Force

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magnetic-force-on-a-current-carrying-conductor

Magnetic Force On A Current-Carrying Conductor

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force-on-a-current-loop-in-a-magnetic-field

Force On A Current Loop In A Magnetic Field

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Torque On A Current Loop In A Magnetic Field

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Magnetic Field Of A Current Loop

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Divergence and Curl of Magnetic Field

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To evaluate the divergence of the ...

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A fundamental property of a static magnetic field is that it is not conservative, unlike an electrostatic field. Instead, there is a relationship between ...

Use models to explain magnetism in terms of domains, interactions of poles, and magnetic fields.

PS.PSc.6.4

Analyze motion in terms of speed, velocity, acceleration, and momentum.

Maxwell’s Fix for Changing Currents

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