Artículo:

Causality in Classical Electrodynamics

Autor:

Craig Savage

Resumen:

Causality in electrodynamics is a subject of some confusion, especially regarding the application of Faraday's law and the Ampère-Maxwell law.1–3 This has led to the suggestion that we should not teach students that electric and magnetic fields can cause each other,1 but rather focus on charges and currents as the causal agents.3 In this paper I argue that fields have equal status as casual agents, and that we should teach this. Following a discussion of causality in classical physics, I will use a numerical solution of Maxwell's equations to inform a field-based causal explanation in electrodynamics.

Página:

226

Publicación:

The Physics Teacher

Volúmen:

50

Número:

4

Periodo:

abril 2012

ISSN:

0031921x

SrcID:

0031921x-2012-04.txt