Magnetism and Moving Charges
▶︎ Watch it animatedinteractive step-through · ~3 min · optional ⚙︎ Open the appletCyclotron Bench · commit to the orbit sense, the lap race and the speed, then set the null line of a velocity selectorA magnetic force acts perpendicular to the velocity at every instant, so it does zero work and cannot change a particle's speed: it steers only. With constant speed and a constant-magnitude perpendicular force, the perpendicular motion is a circle of radius $r = mv_\perp/(|q|B)$, and any velocity along the field survives untouched, making the general path a helix. Dividing the circumference by the speed cancels the speed entirely, leaving the period $T = 2\pi m/(|q|B)$, which is the reason a fixed-frequency cyclotron stays in step with a particle whose orbit keeps growing. In crossed fields, the speed-independent electric force balances the speed-dependent magnetic one at exactly $v = E/B$.
Four errors dominate. Running the right-hand rule on an electron and reporting the answer without the single sign flip, or flipping twice by also reversing the velocity for electron flow. Letting the magnetic field add or drain kinetic energy, when $(\vec{v}\times\vec{B})\cdot\vec{v} = 0$ forbids it. Shrinking the radius for a faster particle, or shortening its period, when $r$ scales with $v$ and $T$ does not depend on $v$ at all. And treating a velocity selector as a universal null, when only $v = E/B$ passes and a faster particle bends toward the magnetic force.
The work
3 ways in · any order
Lesson
Magnetism and Moving Charges
›
Drills the single sign flip a negative charge earns, proves the magnetic force does zero work, and separates the orbit radius, which reads the speed, from the period, which does not.
Diagnostic
10-item topic check
›
Ten items spanning the failure modes of this topic: an unflipped hand for an electron, magnetic fields adding kinetic energy, radius and period scaling scrambled, and a velocity selector treated as a universal null. Take it cold to find which one is yours, or after the lesson to confirm it is not.
Targeted Practice
Drill a single misconception
›
Pick one of the failure modes you missed and drill it on its own. The round is adaptive: two correct in a row clears it for now and moves you to the next. Two in a row is a checkpoint, not proof: if the error resurfaces later, the misconception comes back.