Given below are two statements. Statement I: Biot-Savart's law gives us the expression for the magnetic field strength of an infinitesimal current element (Idl) of a current carrying conductor only. Statement II: Biot-Savart's law is analogous to Coulomb's inverse square law of charge q, with the f…

Question

Given below are two statements.
Statement I: Biot-Savart's law gives us the expression for the magnetic field strength of an infinitesimal current element (Idl) of a current carrying conductor only.
Statement II: Biot-Savart's law is analogous to Coulomb's inverse square law of charge q, with the former being related to the field produced by a scalar source, Idl, while the latter being produced by a vector source, q.
In light of the above statements choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

Accepted Answer

(3) Statement I is correct and Statement II is incorrect. Idea: check each statement on its own, and look hardest at the one that labels quantities as scalars or vectors. Statement I: Biot-Savart's law does give d⃗B for an element Id⃗l, and the field of a whole conductor is found by integrating over its elements. Correct. Statement II: the two laws are indeed analogous inverse-square laws. But the current element Id⃗l is a vector — it carries the direction of the wire — while the charge q is a scalar. Statement II swaps those two, so it is incorrect. Hence Statement I correct, Statement II incorrect.

Step-by-step solution

Why the other options are wrong