Maxwell's equations

Maxwell's equations are the set of four equations, attributed to James Clerk Maxwell (written by Oliver Heaviside), that describe the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter.

Historical developments of Maxwell's equations and relativity

Maxwell's 1865 formulation was in terms of 20 equations in 20 variables, which included several equations now considered to be auxiliary to what are now called "Maxwell's equations" — the corrected Ampere's law (three component equations), Gauss' law for charge (one equation), the relationship between total and displacement current densities (three component equations), the relationship between magnetic field and the vector potential (three component equations, which imply the absence of magnetic charge), the relationship between electric field and the scalar and vector potentials (three component equations, which imply Faraday's law), the relationship between the electric and displacement fields (three component equations), Ohm's law relating current density and electric field (three component equations), and the continuity equation relating current density and charge density (one equation).

Related Topics:
Vector potential - Ohm's law - Continuity equation - Current density - Charge density

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The modern mathematical formulation of Maxwell's equations is due to Oliver Heaviside and Willard Gibbs, who in 1884 reformulated Maxwell's original system of equations to a far simpler representation using vector calculus. (In 1873 Maxwell also published a quaternion-based notation that ultimately proved unpopular.) The change to the vector notation produced a symmetric mathematical representation that reinforced the perception of physical symmetries between the various fields. This highly symmetrical formulation would directly inspire later developments in fundamental physics.

Related Topics:
Oliver Heaviside - Willard Gibbs - 1884 - Vector calculus - Quaternion - Symmetries

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In the late 19th century, because of the appearance of a velocity,

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:c=rac{1}{sqrt{arepsilon_0mu_0}}

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in the equations, Maxwell's equations were only thought to express electromagnetism in the rest frame of the luminiferous aether (the postulated medium for light, whose interpretation was considerably debated). When the Michelson-Morley experiment, conducted by Edward Morley and Albert Abraham Michelson, produced a null result for the change of the velocity of light due to the Earth's hypothesized motion through the aether, however, alternative explanations were sought by Lorentz and others. This culminated in Einstein's theory of special relativity, which postulated the absence of any absolute rest frame (or aether) and the invariance of Maxwell's equations in all frames of reference.

Related Topics:
Luminiferous aether - Michelson-Morley experiment - Edward Morley - Albert Abraham Michelson - Null result - Special relativity

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The electromagnetic field equations have an intimate link with special relativity: the magnetic field equations can be derived from consideration of the transformation of the electric field equations under relativistic transformations at low velocities. (In relativity, the equations are written in an even more compact, "manifestly covariant" form, in terms of the rank-2 antisymmetric field-strength 4-tensor that unifies the electric and magnetic fields into a single object.)

Related Topics:
Covariant - Tensor

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Kaluza and Klein showed in the 1920s that Maxwell's equations can be derived by extending general relativity into five dimensions. This strategy of using higher dimensions to unify different forces is an active area of research in particle physics.

Related Topics:
Kaluza and Klein - General relativity - Particle physics

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