Similarities and differences between coulomb's law and biot savart law
Answers
Comparison between Biot-Savart Law and Coulomb’s Law:
Similarities:
Both magnetic and electric fields at a point are inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the field source and the point in question
Electric field due to a point charge (Coulomb’s law) is : E = (1/4πƐo) × (q/r2)
Magnetic field due to a moving charge (Biot-Savart law) is: B = (μo/4π) × idl(sinθ)/r2
The first diagram shows the electric field (E) due to a point charge (q)
The second diagram shows the magnetic field (B) due to current carrying wire
Both laws works on the principle of superposition (resultant field due to more than 1 sources is the vector sum of all the sources independently)
Both magnetic and electric fields have sources that are linear in nature (both, the current element idl and the electrostatic charge q)
Differences:
The source of electrostatic field is scalar in nature. Whereas, the source of magnetic field, which is current element (idl), is vector in nature.
Electric field always acts along the plane containing distance (r) between point charge and the point where electric field is to be calculated. But, the magnetic field acts in the plane perpendicular to the plane of distance(r) between the current element and the concerned point.
Magnetic field depends on the angle (θ) between the current element(idl) and line joining the point and current element. However, electric field doesn’t depend on angle(θ).
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN COULOMBS LAW AND BIOT SAVART LAW
1) long range
2) super position principle can be applied