8/7/2019 Get to Know Maxwell's Equations—You're Using Them Right Now | WIRED

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RHETT ALLAIN SCIENCE 08.06.19 02:07 PM

GET TO KNOW MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS—YOU'RE USING

THEM RIGHT NOW

The behavior of magnets can be explained with Maxwell's equations, which also describe the behavior of light and
everyday objects like electric motors. LAWRENCE LAWRY/GETTY IMAGES

IF YOU HANG around with physics people long enough, someone eventually will
bring up Maxwell's equations. Maybe as part of a joke, or on a T-shirt or a
tattoo. But they'll be somewhere. So even if you aren't a physics major, it won't
hurt to get a basic understanding of these iconic equations.

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Maxwell's equations are sort of a big deal in physics. They're how we canSUBSCRIBE
model
an electromagnetic wave—also known as light. Oh, it's also how most electric
generators work and even electric motors. Essentially, you are using Maxwell's
equations right now, even if you don't know it. Why are they called "Maxwell's
equations"? That's after James Clark Maxwell. He was the 19th-century
scientist who sort of put them together, even though many others contributed.

There are four of these equations, and I'll go over each one and give a
conceptual explanation. Don't worry, you won't need to refresh your calculus
skills. If you do want to follow the math, let me point out that there are two
different ways to write these equations, either as integrals or as spatial
derivatives. I'll give both versions—but again, if the math looks uninviting, just
ignore it.

Gauss' Law

RHETT ALLAIN

The short version is that Gauss' law describes the electric field pattern due to
electric charges. What is a field? I like this description:

It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds
the galaxy together.

Oh wait. That was Obi Wan's description of the Force in Star Wars Episode IV.
But it's not a terrible description of an electric field. Here is another definition
(by me):

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If you take two electric charges, there is an interaction force between them. The electric
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field is the force per unit charge on one of those charges. So, it's sort of like a region that
describes how an electric charge would feel a force. But is it even real? Well, a field can
have both energy and momentum—so it's at least as real as those things.

Don't worry about the actual equation. It's sort of complicated, and I just want
to get to the idea behind it. (If you have seen this physics equation before, you
might think I am going to go into electric flux, but let's see if I can do this with
"no flux given.") So let's just say that Gauss' law says that electric fields point
away from positive charges and towards negative charges. We can call this a
Coulomb field (named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb).

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Everyone knows that positive charges are red and negative charges are blue.
Actually, I don't know why I always make the positive red—you can't see them
anyway. Also, you might notice that the electric field due to the negative
charges looks shorter. That's because those arrows start farther away from the
charge. One of the key ideas of a Coulomb field is that the strength of the field
decreases with distance from a single point charge.

But wait! Not all electric fields look like this. The electric field also follows the
superposition principle. This means that the total electric field at any location
is the vector sum of the electric field due to whatever point charges are nearby.
This means you can make cool fields like the one below, which are the result of

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two equal and opposite charges (called a dipole). And here's the Python code I
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used to create it.

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This dipole field is going to be important for the next equation.

Gauss' Law for Magnetism

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RHETT ALLAIN
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Yes, this looks very similar to the other Gauss' law. But why isn't the previous
equation called "Gauss' law for electricism"? First, that's because "electricism"
isn't a real word (yet). Second, the other Gauss' law came first, so it gets the
simple name. It's like that time in third grade when a class had a student named
John. Then another John joined the class and everyone called him John 2. It's
not fair—but that's just how things go sometimes.

OK, the first thing about this equation is the B. We use this to represent the
magnetic field. But you will notice that the other side of the equation is zero.
The reason for this is the lack of magnetic monopoles. Take a look at this
picture of iron filings around a bar magnet (surely you have seen something like
this before).

RHETT ALLAIN

This looks very similar to the electric field due to a dipole (except for the
clumps of filings because I can't spread them out). It looks similar because it is
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mathematically the same. The magnetic field due to a bar magnet looks like the
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electric field due to a dipole. But can I get a single magnetic "charge" by itself
and get something that looks like the electric field due to a point charge? Nope.

Here's what happens when you break a magnet in half. Yes, I cheated. The
picture above shows two bar magnets. But trust me—if you break a magnet into
two pieces, it will look like this.

RHETT ALLAIN

It's still a dipole. You can't get a magnetic field to look like the electric field due
to a point charge because there are no individual magnetic charges (called a
magnetic monopole). That's basically what Gauss' law for magnetism says—
that there's no such thing as a magnetic monopole. OK, I should be clear here.
We have never seen a magnetic monopole. They might exist.

Faraday's Law

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The super-short version of this equation is that there is another way to make an
electric field. It's not just electric charges that make electric fields. In fact, you
can also make an electric field with a changing magnetic field. This is a HUGE
idea as it makes a connection between electric and magnetic fields.

Let me start with a classic demonstration. Here is a magnet, a coil of wire, and a
galvanometer (it basically measures tiny electric currents). When I move the
magnet in or out of the coil, I get a current.

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If you just hold the magnet in the coil, there is no current. It has to be a
changing magnetic field. Oh, but where is the electric field? Well, the way to
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make an electric current is to have an electric field in the direction of theSUBSCRIBE

wire.
This electric field inside the wire pushes electric charges to create the current.

But there is something different about this electric field. Instead of pointing
away from positive charges and pointing towards negative charges, the field
pattern just makes circles. I will use the name "curly electric field" for a case
like this (I adopted the term from my favorite physics textbook authors). With
that, we can call the electric field made from charges a "Coulomb field"
(because of Coulomb's law).

Here is a rough diagram showing the relationship between the changing

magnetic field and an induced curly electric field.

RHETT ALLAIN

Note that I am showing the direction of the magnetic field inside of that circle,
but it's really the direction of the change in magnetic field that matters.

Ampere-Maxwell Law

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Do you see the similarity? This equation sort of looks like Faraday's law, right?
Well, it replaces E with B and it adds in an extra term. The basic idea here is that
this equation tells us the two ways to make a magnetic field. The first way is
with an electric current.

Here is a super-quick demo. I have a magnetic compass with a wire over it.
When an electric current flows, it creates a magnetic field that moves the
compass needle.

RHETT ALLAIN

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It's difficult to see from this demo, but the shape of this magnetic field isSUBSCRIBE
a curly
field. You can sort of see this if I put some iron filings on paper with an electric
current running through it.

RHETT ALLAIN

Maybe you can see the shape of this field a little better with this output from a
numerical calculation. This shows a small part of a wire with electric current
and the resulting magnetic field.

RHETT ALLAIN

Actually, that image might seem complicated to create but it's really not too
terribly difficult. Here is a tutorial on using Python to calculate the magnetic
field. There is another way to create a curly magnetic field—with a changing
electric field. Yes, it's the same way a changing magnetic field creates a curly
electric field. Here's what it would look like.

RHETT ALLAIN

Notice that I even changed the vector colors to match the previous curly field
picture—that's because I care about the details. But let me just summarize the
coolest part. Changing electric fields make curly magnetic fields. Changing
magnetic fields make curly electric fields. AWESOME.

What About Light?

The most common topic linked to Maxwell's Equations is that of an
electromagnetic wave. How does that work? Suppose you have a region of space
with nothing but an electric field and magnetic field. There are no electric
charges and there isn't an electric current. Let's say it looks like this.

RHETT ALLAIN

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Let me explain what's going on here. There is an electric field pointing INTO
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your computer screen (yes, it's tough dealing with three dimensions with a 2D
screen) and a magnetic field pointing down. This region with a field is moving
to the right with some velocity v. What about that box? That's just an outline of
some region. But here's the deal. As the electric field moves into that box, there
is a changing field that can make a magnetic field. If you draw another box
perpendicular to that, you can see that there will be a changing magnetic field
that can make a magnetic field. In fact, if this region of space moves at the
speed of light (3 x 108 m/s), then the changing magnetic field can make a
changing electric field. These fields can support each other without any charges
or currents. This is an electromagnetic pulse.

An electromagnetic wave is an oscillating electric field that creates an

oscillating magnetic field that creates an oscillating electric field. Most waves
need some type of medium to move through. A sound wave needs air (or some
other material), a wave in the ocean needs water. An EM wave does not need
this. It is its own medium. It can travel through empty space—which is nice, so
that we can get light from the sun here on Earth.

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