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The equations introduce the electric field, E, a vector field, and the magnetic field, B, a pseudovector field, each generally having a time and location dependence. The sources are The sources are the total electric charge density (total charge per unit volume), ρ , and
For the field formulation of Maxwell's equations in terms of a principle of extremal action, see electromagnetic tensor. Often, the time derivative in the Faraday–Maxwell equation motivates calling this equation "dynamical", which is somewhat misleading in the sense of the preceding analysis.
The electromagnetic field admits a coordinate-independent geometric description, and Maxwell's equations expressed in terms of these geometric objects are the same in any spacetime, curved or not. Also, the same modifications are made to the equations of flat Minkowski space when using local coordinates that are not rectilinear.
In theoretical physics and applied mathematics, a field equation is a partial differential equation which determines the dynamics of a physical field, specifically the time evolution and spatial distribution of the field. The solutions to the equation are mathematical functions which correspond directly to the field, as functions of time and space.
Position vectors r and r′ used in the calculation. The starting point is Maxwell's equations in the potential formulation using the Lorenz gauge: =, = where φ(r, t) is the electric potential and A(r, t) is the magnetic vector potential, for an arbitrary source of charge density ρ(r, t) and current density J(r, t), and is the D'Alembert operator. [2]
This tensor simplifies and reduces Maxwell's equations as four vector calculus equations into two tensor field equations. In electrostatics and electrodynamics, Gauss's law and Ampère's circuital law are respectively:
Interface conditions describe the behaviour of electromagnetic fields; electric field, electric displacement field, and the magnetic field at the interface of two materials. The differential forms of these equations require that there is always an open neighbourhood around the point to which they are applied, otherwise the vector fields and H ...
The first successful classical unified field theory was developed by James Clerk Maxwell. In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that electric currents exerted forces on magnets, while in 1831, Michael Faraday made the observation that time-varying magnetic fields could induce electric currents. Until then, electricity and magnetism had ...