Electricity and the electromagnetic field

est 25h · logged 0h · started — · touched —

The invention of the field — the deepest idea in classical physics. From Franklin's single fluid and Volta's pile through Ørsted and Ampère to Faraday, who could not do the mathematics but saw the field, and Maxwell, who wrote it down and found light waiting inside his equations.

next action

done when you can

Explain what a field is, and why it was a conceptual break from action-at-a-distance.Trace the unification: electricity and magnetism turn out to be one thing.Say how Maxwell's equations predicted electromagnetic waves — and that light is one of them.Explain why Faraday's induction is the principle behind every generator and transformer.

resources

○Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field— Nancy Forbes & Basil Mahonanchor · book
○Electric Universe— David Bodaniscompanion · book
○Understanding Physics, Vol. 2: Light, Magnetism, and Electricity— Isaac Asimovoptional · book

sessions

unlocks The Light unit (light as an electromagnetic wave) and the electron unit (the electron in matter). Maxwell's field is also the classical stage the quantum will rebuild.

open in notion ↗