The Student Room Group

How electromagnets work

I learnt about electromagnet at A-level and understand it within the specification. However I'm curious how an why a magnetic field is created in a wire when a current runs through it?
Google searches bring up a lot of confusing articles which don't seem to answer the question.
Does anyone have a good resource I can use to understand this phenomena
Reply 1
The wire is like a bar magnet, so there are fields rotating in opposite direction at the two ends of the wire, so a magnetic field is formed.
Reply 2
Original post by 8013
The wire is like a bar magnet, so there are fields rotating in opposite direction at the two ends of the wire, so a magnetic field is formed.

I get that but the wire by itself is not magnetic, it only get a magnetic field when current goes through it. That's the part that I don't get why does the current cause the magnetic field?
Would this be something I would learn at uni if I study mechanical engineering?

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