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In fact, Maxwell's equations were crucial in the historical development of special relativity. However, in the usual formulation of Maxwell's equations, their consistency with special relativity is not obvious; it can only be proven by a laborious calculation. For example, consider a conductor moving in the field of a magnet. [8]
The term "Maxwell's equations" is often also used for equivalent alternative formulations. Versions of Maxwell's equations based on the electric and magnetic scalar potentials are preferred for explicitly solving the equations as a boundary value problem, analytical mechanics, or for use in quantum mechanics.
Maxwell's equations (in partial differential form) are modified to central-difference equations, discretized, and implemented in software. The equations are solved in a cyclic manner: the electric field is solved at a given instant in time, then the magnetic field is solved at the next instant in time, and the process is repeated over and over ...
The structure of Maxwell relations is a statement of equality among the second derivatives for continuous functions. It follows directly from the fact that the order of differentiation of an analytic function of two variables is irrelevant (Schwarz theorem).
These equations can be viewed as a generalization of the vacuum Maxwell's equations which are normally formulated in the local coordinates of flat spacetime. But because general relativity dictates that the presence of electromagnetic fields (or energy / matter in general) induce curvature in spacetime, [ 1 ] Maxwell's equations in flat ...
Because of the linearity of Maxwell's equations in a vacuum, solutions can be decomposed into a superposition of sinusoids. This is the basis for the Fourier transform method for the solution of differential equations. The sinusoidal solution to the electromagnetic wave equation takes the form
Of the four Maxwell's equations, two—Faraday's law and Ampère's law—can be compactly expressed using curl. Faraday's law states that the curl of an electric field is equal to the opposite of the time rate of change of the magnetic field, while Ampère's law relates the curl of the magnetic field to the current and the time rate of change ...
In summary, Maxwell's equations successfully unified theories of light and electromagnetism, which is one of the great unifications in physics. [9] Maxwell built a simple flywheel model of electromagnetism, and Boltzmann built an elaborate mechanical model ("Bicykel") based on Maxwell's flywheel model, which he used for lecture demonstrations. [10]