Uploaded November 2013 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This animation portrays the motion of an electric charge in a uniform magnetic field. Starting with the special case where the initial motion is perpendicular to the magnetic field, we see that the motion is circular. The frequency of this circular motion (the cyclotron frequency) does not depend upon the speed of the charge. When generalizing the charge's motion to the full 3-D case, we see that the charge's will spiral along (and around) magnetic field lines.
This animation was revised to make some features more visible.
This animation portrays the motion of an electric charge in a uniform magnetic field. Starting with the special case where the initial motion is perpendicular to the magnetic field, we see that the motion is circular. The frequency of this circular motion (the cyclotron frequency) does not depend upon the speed of the charge. When generalizing the charge's motion to the full 3-D case, we see that the charge's will spiral along (and around) magnetic field lines.
This animation was revised to make some features more visible.
