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With the publication of "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" in 1865, Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. He proposed that light is an undulation in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. [ 5 ]
Maxwell was conflicted on the idea on the nature of the fields, he considered the aether to a mechanical medium in order to carry energy. [2] In 1868 Carl Neumann discussed the idea of the electromagnetic field being an independent energy field. [2] In 1887, Heinrich Hertz published his experimental evidence of the existence of electromagnetic ...
In 1864 Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell proposed a comprehensive theory of electromagnetism, now called Maxwell's equations. Maxwell's theory predicted that coupled electric and magnetic fields could travel through space as an "electromagnetic wave". Maxwell proposed that light consisted of electromagnetic waves of short ...
The electromagnetic theory of light adds to the old undulatory theory an enormous province of transcendent interest and importance; it demands of us not merely an explanation of all the phenomena of light and radiant heat by transverse vibrations of an elastic solid called ether, but also the inclusion of electric currents, of the permanent ...
The concept of fields was introduced by, among others, Faraday. Albert Einstein wrote: The precise formulation of the time-space laws was the work of Maxwell. Imagine his feelings when the differential equations he had formulated proved to him that electromagnetic fields spread in the form of polarized waves, and at the speed of light!
Einstein argued that it takes a certain amount of energy, called the work function and denoted by φ, to remove an electron from the metal. [16] This amount of energy is different for each metal. If the energy of the light quanta is less than the work function, then it does not carry sufficient energy to remove the electron from the metal.
Examples of the dynamic fields of electromagnetic radiation (in order of increasing frequency): radio waves, microwaves, light (infrared, visible light and ultraviolet), x-rays and gamma rays. In the field of particle physics this electromagnetic radiation is the manifestation of the electromagnetic interaction between charged particles.
The electric and magnetic fields in such a wave are in-phase with each other, reaching minima and maxima together. Electric and magnetic fields obey the properties of superposition. Thus, a field due to any particular particle or time-varying electric or magnetic field contributes to the fields present in the same space due to other causes.