Ordinary clampmeters used to measure AC currents work on the principle of electromagnetic induction caused by the alternating current flowing in the conductor which reverses direction causing a dynamically changing magnetic field. However, in DC conductors, the current flows in a fixed polarity. Consequently, the magnetic field around the conductor is fixed and does not change. Hence, a conventional clamp meter will register no reading.A
DC clampmeter works on the principle of the Hall Effect. The Hall Effect, named after Edwin Hall who discovered it 1879, states that when a conductor carrying current is placed in a magnetic field, a potential is induced across the conductor, transverse to an electric current in the conductor and a magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It is caused as the charge 
carriers, electrons or holes, experience a force known as the Lorentz force and are pushed to the sides of the conductor.A clampmeter which works on the Hall effect has a sensor known as the Hall element. The Hall element is subjected to the magnetic field caused by the flow of current to be measured. This causes a small voltage across the Hall element. This voltage is amplified and measured.
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