Ampere's equation

In physics, more particularly in electrodynamics, Ampère's equation describes the force between two infinitesimal elements of current-carrying wires. The equation is named for the early nineteenth century French physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère.

Rather than giving the infinitesimal equation, which is not without problems, we will describe two common integrated cases: two straight wires and two closed loops. The equations for these systems are generally accepted and are in full agreement with experiment.

Equations will be given in two common systems of electromagnetic units (SI and rationalized Gaussian) and to that end we define the constant k as follows,

$k={\begin{cases}{\displaystyle {\frac {\mu _{0}\mu _{r}}{4\pi }}}&{\hbox{for SI units}}\\{\displaystyle {\frac {1}{c^{2}}}}&{\hbox{for Gaussian (rationalized cgs) units}}.\end{cases}}$

Here μ₀ is the magnetic permeability of the vacuum and μ_r is the relative magnetic permeability. The quantity c is the velocity of light in the vacuum (299 792 458 m s⁻¹ exactly) .

Two straight, infinite, and parallel wires

Consider two wires, one carrying a current $\scriptstyle i_{1}$, the other $\scriptstyle i_{2}$. Both currents are constant in time; the wires are infinite, straight, and parallel. If the wires are a distance r apart, the force (per unit of length) between them is,

$F=2k{\frac {i_{1}i_{2}}{r}}.\,$

The force is attractive if the currents run in the same direction and repulsive if they flow in opposite direction. This equation is used to define the SI unit of current A (ampere). If r = 1 m, F = 2 ⋅ 10⁻⁷ N (per meter of wire in vacuum), and the currents are equal, then the currents are equal to 1 A. Note that in SI units this implies that μ₀ = 4π ⋅ 10⁻⁷.

Illustration to the force between two closed current-carrying loops

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Two loops

Let $\scriptstyle i_{1}$ and $\scriptstyle i_{2}$ be electric currents constant in time. They run in separate loops, see figure on the right, where all quantities are defined. The total force between two loops is given by the double path integral over the loops

$\mathbf {F} _{12}=-ki_{1}i_{2}\oint _{l_{1}}\oint _{l_{2}}{\frac {(d\mathbf {l} _{1}\cdot d\mathbf {l} _{2})\,\mathbf {r} _{12}}{|\mathbf {r} _{12}|^{3}}}.$