2.II.17B
Two perfectly conducting rails are placed on the -plane, one coincident with the -axis, starting at , the other parallel to the first rail a distance apart, starting at . A resistor is connected across the rails between and , and a uniform magnetic field , where is the unit vector along the -axis and , fills the entire region of space. A metal bar of negligible resistance and mass slides without friction on the two rails, lying perpendicular to both of them in such a way that it closes the circuit formed by the rails and the resistor. The bar moves with speed to the right such that the area of the loop becomes larger with time.
(i) Calculate the current in the resistor and indicate its direction of flow in a diagram of the system.
(ii) Show that the magnetic force on the bar is
(iii) Assume that the bar starts moving with initial speed at time , and is then left to slide freely. Using your result from part (ii) and Newton's laws show that its velocity at the time is
(iv) By calculating the total energy delivered to the resistor, verify that energy is conserved.