- #36
atyy
Science Advisor
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monesh said:the way to teach is now part of the question, and i feel i have as much expertise here as anyone. i think the way to teach is to find progressive approximations to the truth. this is what humans use in languge that express (but simplify) feelings, myths that characterize (but simplify) culture, and even in science that describes (but simplifies) nature. if we took the answer "that's just how it is. period." would we even have started science in the first place? all this means that i believe there is some way to approximate a reasonably good answer to my question that is better than just saying don't ask. and by the way, if you're bothered by me asking, you really don't have to try to be the one to answer.
I am bothered by you asking, because it is fundamentally wrong to think that science is about asking "why".
monesh said:i guess at this point i at least wonder if i could just accurately say "most scientists have no explanation for exactly how em waves are produced, in the form of waves, from electrons" - or is even this true? is this just the view of the few i have run into here, or is this really the majority view? maybe you guys could at least help me refine this statement, in case a student asks the quite natural question: why waves?
You are confused. There are two "waves". One is the EM wave and the other is the Schroedinger wave equation. The Schroedinger wave equation is at the moment fundamental and cannot be derived. That does not mean it will not be explained by a more fundamental theory in the future. But at present there is no observed phenomenon that is not described by the Schroedinger equation.
As for EM waves, at the classical level, the EM wave can arises from 3 things
(1) a charge produces an electric field
(2) a changing electric field produces a changing magnetic field
(3) a changing magnetic field produces a changing electric field.
But if you want to ask why (1), (2) and (3) are true, you are going down the wrong track, because science is not fundamentally about "why".