this picture is probably, in fact, right. Perhaps the guy who commented on it has seen one too many pictures with a wire receiving induced current which is usually represented by a pointy arrow going straight through the solenoid. electric field lines of a solenoid, though, do appear the same way the picture draws it.
Where a current carrying conductor is configured vertically and that wire passes through a hole in a horizontal, non conducting material (plexiglas); a compass placed on that surface will remain perpendicular to the current carrying conductor as the compass, or a circle of compasses follows circular path around that conductor. This is convincing evidence that lines of force encircle that current carrying carrying conducter. In another experiment very small dipole magnets are arranged in a circular configuration and placed on horizontal surface. Another piece of plexiglas is placed above or and or below the circle of magnets and a circle of compasses is placed so they are above and or below the circle of magnets. As expected the direction on the compasses trace the lines of force produced by the circle of magnets. This second experiment is repeated except that the circle of magnets is replaced by circular configuration of dipole magnets which form not one circle but a spiral (slightly angled circles in parallel). As expected compasses pleced above or below these spirals also trace endless circles. Can we say with any degree of certainty that the lines of force around a current carrying conductor do not move spirally 'along' a current carrying conductor toward a lower potential? I have devised a means to test theory. Howard24 Howardsr24 (talk) 18:04, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
