Left-Hand Rule of Electricity

The left-hand rule of electricity is a fundamental concept in physics and electrical engineering that is used to determine the direction of the force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field. It is based on the relationship between the direction of the magnetic field and the direction of the current flow.

The left-hand rule of electricity states that if you point your left thumb in the direction of the current flow and your left fingers in the direction of the magnetic field, the direction of the force on the conductor can be determined by the direction of your extended palm. Specifically, if the palm is facing upwards, the direction of the force will be in the opposite direction to the current; if the palm is facing downwards, the direction of the force will be in the same direction as the current.

This rule is important because the interaction between electric currents and magnetic fields is the basis for many important applications in electrical engineering, such as electric motors, generators, and transformers. The direction of the force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field can also affect the behavior of nearby conductors, and can be used to control the flow of electric current.

The left-hand rule of electricity is related to another important concept in physics, known as the right-hand rule of electricity. The right-hand rule of electricity is used to determine the direction of the magnetic field around a current-carrying conductor, based on the direction of the current flow.

While the left-hand rule of electricity may seem like a simple concept, it is a crucial tool for understanding the behavior of electric and magnetic fields. By using this rule to determine the direction of the force on a conductor in a magnetic field, electrical engineers and physicists can design and optimize a wide range of electrical systems and devices.

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AI Technical Trustability Update

While working on an update to my RF Cafe Espresso Engineering Workbook project to add a couple calculators about FM sidebands (available soon). The good news is that AI provided excellent VBA code to generate a set of Bessel function plots. The bad news is when I asked for a table showing at which modulation indices sidebands 0 (carrier) through 5 vanish, none of the agents got it right. Some were really bad. The AI agents typically explain their reason and method correctly, then go on to produces bad results. Even after pointing out errors, subsequent results are still wrong. I do a lot of AI work and see this often, even with subscribing to professional versions. I ultimately generated the table myself. There is going to be a lot of inaccurate information out there based on unverified AI queries, so beware.

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