Question

Why is the symbol for magnetic field ‘B’?

Answer 1

Magnetic field:

1. A vector field produced by current, moving charges, or magnetic materials is known as magnetic field.
2. The magnetic field is always bipolar, consisting of two poles, north and south. Magnetic field lines move from north to south.

Symbol for magnetic field:

1. James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish scientist, introduced the idea of recognizing a few physical quantities as vector fields and gave their notations.
2. In 1873, he wrote a book named “A treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”. In this book, he randomly assigned alphabets to vectors.
3. He assigned A for vector potential, B for the magnetic field, E as electric field, and so on.

Hence, the symbol for the magnetic field is ‘B’.