Answer to Question #330306 in Electricity and Magnetism for ryan

Question

How does an electric field and magnetic field affect the kinetic energy of a charged particle moving in free space?

Answer 1

One basic feature of magnetism is that, in the vicinity of a magnetic field, a moving charge will experience a force. Interestingly, the force on the charged particle is always perpendicular to the direction it is moving. Thus magnetic forces cause charged particles to change their direction of motion, but they do not change the speed of the particle. This property is used in high-energy particle accelerators to focus beams of particles which eventually collide with targets to produce new particles. Another way to understand this is to realize that if the force is perpendicular to the motion, then no work is done. Hence magnetic forces do no work on charged particles and cannot increase their kinetic energy. If a charged particle moves through a constant magnetic field, its speed stays the same, but its direction is constantly changing.