Guiding Center

Guiding Center

In many cases of practical interest, the motion in a magnetic field of an electrically charged particle (such as an electron or ion in a plasma) can be treated as the superposition of a relatively fast circular motion around a point called the guiding center and a relatively slow drift of this point. The drift speeds may differ for various species depending on their charge states, masses, or temperatures, possibly resulting in electric currents or chemical separation.

Read more about Guiding Center:  Gyration, Parallel Motion, General Force Drifts, Nonuniform B, Polarization Drift, Diamagnetic Drift, Drift Currents

Famous quotes containing the words guiding and/or center:

    For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .
    Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)

    My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
    Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929)