# Ampère's Law Confusion (Basic)

Ampère's Law in its integral form (ignoring the term Maxwell introduced for capacitors) essentially says that the total magnetic field directed around a closed loop is proportional to the current flowing in it. This carries the implication that any loop of creates a corresponding magnetic field (the basis of solenoids etc). Please do correct anything incorrect in the above! My question is this: does the converse of the above work (i.e.: does a magnetic field create a current in a wire). My intuition says this is wrong since in most of EM you need some notion of a changing field for any effect to be produced. Thanks for any help!

• You're right throughout – including your intuition about requiring a $changing$ magnetic field (or motion of a conductor through a field). [Faraday didn't know this when he first started looking for an electrical effect of magnetic fields to partner the recently discovered magnetic effect of an electric current.] – Philip Wood Jun 28 '17 at 12:29
• "total magnetic field directed around a closed loop is proportional to the current flowing in it." - it's proportional to the current through the surface bounded by the loop. Is this what you mean? – Hal Hollis Jun 28 '17 at 14:08