Re: Lenz's Law

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

when in doubt, use the energy principle.  The current direction must be
in the direction that doesn't violate conservation of energy.  i.e. so
one doesn't have a perpetual motion machine,  i.e. so one does work on
the system.  I'm assuming your example is pushing (or pulling) a magnet
into a coil, or passing a magnet past a conductor producing an eddy
current.  Same principle applies in the case of a transformer where the
coils are fixed.

bc

Tina Fanetti wrote:

> Hello
> Today I was covering Lenz's law in class.  I was doing an example and=
>  I got all confused and couldn't get the current going the right way.
>
> How do I figure out which way the induced current is going?  I have l=
> ooked in 4 books and they all use the same example.  Haliday, Resnick=
> , Walker use I different right hand rule..
> the more I read and try to figure out the worse it gets....
>
> Help Please
> Tina (feeling dumb)
>
> Tina Fanetti
> Physics Instructor
> Western Iowa Technical Community College
> 4647 Stone Ave
> Sioux City IA 51102
> 712-274-8733 ext 1429