Maxwell’s displacement current is a response toa)inconsistency i...
Maxwell’s displacement current is a response to inconsistency in the Ampere’s law.
Maxwell showed that Ampere's circuital law is logically inconsistent. He considered a parallel plate capacitor being charged be a battery. He showed inconsistency of the law in the regions outside the plates of capacitor and just between the plates. To resolve this inconsistency displacement current was introduced by Maxwell.
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Maxwell’s displacement current is a response toa)inconsistency i...
Explanation:
Maxwell's Displacement Current:
- Maxwell's displacement current is a term introduced by James Clerk Maxwell in his electromagnetic theory to explain inconsistencies in Ampere's law.
- According to Ampere's law, the magnetic field is produced by the current flowing through a conductor. However, Maxwell found that this law was inconsistent with the behavior of capacitors.
Inconsistency in Ampere's Law:
- Ampere's law states that the magnetic field around a current-carrying conductor is solely due to the current flowing through the conductor.
- When Maxwell studied the behavior of capacitors, he found that the changing electric field between the plates of a capacitor produced a magnetic field, even though no current was flowing through the capacitor.
- This inconsistency led Maxwell to introduce the concept of displacement current.
Role of Displacement Current:
- Maxwell's displacement current is a term used to describe the time-varying electric field between the plates of a capacitor, which produces a magnetic field.
- This displacement current completes the Ampere-Maxwell law, which states that the total magnetic field is a combination of the magnetic field due to the current and the magnetic field due to the changing electric field (displacement current).
Conclusion:
- In conclusion, Maxwell's displacement current was introduced to address the inconsistency in Ampere's law when applied to the behavior of capacitors. It helps to explain the relationship between changing electric fields and magnetic fields, completing the electromagnetic theory formulated by Maxwell.