Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental forces. It is responsible for most of what happens in daily life, being responsible for chemistry and indeed the existence of atoms, wherein the quarks that group as baryons, such as protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons then group as nuclei and electrically attract a pile of electrons.

“”When we turn our attention to the general case of electrodynamics… our first impression is surprise at the enormous complexity of the problems to be solved.

—Max Planck.[1]

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Electromagnetism manifests as electric fields and magnetic fields. These were thought of as separate until James Clerk Maxwell set out in 1873 precisely how and why one always implies the other. In the process, he discovered that light is electromagnetic radiation.[2]

Physicists used to assume electromagnetism travelled in a medium they called "aether", because how could you have a wave without a medium. That's just silly. Except it turned out to be the case. The Michelson-Morley experiment established that there was such a thing as a speed of light and that it was apparently constant. This was enough to start Einstein on the path to special relativity.[3]

Richard Feynman got a Nobel for working out the quantum mechanics of electromagnetism, quantum electrodynamics.[4]

Woo

• Magnets have been regarded as magical since they were popularly available: magnetic water treatment, magnetic field therapy. engineering, was a fount of electromagnetic crankery.
• Dewey Larson's Reciprocal Theory
• Scalar waves should leave you gibbering into the sunset.
• Precision Herbs which builds quack electronic zappers that they claim kills parasites
• Some folks believe that even ridiculously small levels of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation are hurting them, thanks to electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

References

1. Modern Electrodynamics by Andrew Zangwill. ISBN 978-0-521-89697-9. Reviewed by James S. Russ. American Journal of Physics. June 22, 2015.
2. https://www.biography.com/people/james-c-maxwell-9403463
3. http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Michelson-MorleyExperiment.html
4. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Feynman

See also

For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Electricity.

• Physics
• Gravity

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