- #1
JRPB
- 22
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¿How do modern physicists think about magnetism?
Recently, I realized something really cool that made me re-evaluate the way I thought about magnetism. I'm not a physicist, I'm in the early process of becoming one (old cow trying out a whole new career). I had this "fieldy" notion about what magnetic forces were, and had a vague idea on how it relates to the electric field. After taking some calculus and classical mechanics, I eventually bumped into the interesting and different things that can happen when one chooses different frames of reference for a given problem.
Suppose I'm in a lonely region of space and I watch this electron zoom by. I have with me a device that measures magnetic fields. Since the electron is moving relative to me, the Ampere-Maxwell equation would say that my detector will register some magnetic field. However, if I'm moving at the same velocity parallel to the electron (same speed, same direction) my detector will not register this magnetic field. Naturally, because in my frame of reference, the charge is now at rest.
So, if an electron (or any other charged particle, for that matter) creates a condition in space called the electric field, and other charged particles feel this condition: ¿What is magnetism?* ¿How come this "force" depends on the frame of reference? ¿Am I abstracting something the wrong way? ¿Is magnetism another human convention due to our physical size?
If you know/feel/think this has been answered somewhere else, I'd appreciate any links or references.
Thanks in advance.
* A perfectly acceptable answer would be: magnetism is what happens when a e-field changes in time, that's the way nature is. However, I'm looking for some insight, if there's any to be found.
Recently, I realized something really cool that made me re-evaluate the way I thought about magnetism. I'm not a physicist, I'm in the early process of becoming one (old cow trying out a whole new career). I had this "fieldy" notion about what magnetic forces were, and had a vague idea on how it relates to the electric field. After taking some calculus and classical mechanics, I eventually bumped into the interesting and different things that can happen when one chooses different frames of reference for a given problem.
Suppose I'm in a lonely region of space and I watch this electron zoom by. I have with me a device that measures magnetic fields. Since the electron is moving relative to me, the Ampere-Maxwell equation would say that my detector will register some magnetic field. However, if I'm moving at the same velocity parallel to the electron (same speed, same direction) my detector will not register this magnetic field. Naturally, because in my frame of reference, the charge is now at rest.
So, if an electron (or any other charged particle, for that matter) creates a condition in space called the electric field, and other charged particles feel this condition: ¿What is magnetism?* ¿How come this "force" depends on the frame of reference? ¿Am I abstracting something the wrong way? ¿Is magnetism another human convention due to our physical size?
If you know/feel/think this has been answered somewhere else, I'd appreciate any links or references.
Thanks in advance.
* A perfectly acceptable answer would be: magnetism is what happens when a e-field changes in time, that's the way nature is. However, I'm looking for some insight, if there's any to be found.