This may, for example, be taken as an isothermal plasma. The first term is interpreted as a magnetic tension force which acts when the field lines are curved.
Magnetic tension is similar to the force exerted by a stretched elastic band.
Interpreting the Lorentz force in terms of these two basic quantities is important since it is possible to see how the plasma will respond to a given magnetic field configuration. In order of magnitude, the Maxwell equation, which is called Faraday's Induction Law, can be approximated by , where and are typical time and length variations of the plasma.