A current-carrying body placed in a magnetic field with the current direction unaligned with the field experiences a force leading to a transient sidewise drift of the charge carriers of the current. This drift continues until the force is balanced by an electric field produced by the charge accumulating at points on the body's surface in the direction of the drift. At points on the body's surface opposite the direction of the drift, there will clearly be an equal depletion of charge, which is equivalent to an accumulation of charge of opposite sign. The electric field created by this transient behavior is called the Hall field and results in a potential difference between corresponding points on the two oppositely charged surfaces. Which of the two surfaces is at the higher potential is determined by the sign of the charge carriers. If the carriers are positive, the...