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Maxwell's equations on a plaque on his statue in Edinburgh. Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, electric and magnetic circuits.
One difference between the Gaussian and SI systems is in the factor 4π in various formulas that relate the quantities that they define. With SI electromagnetic units, called rationalized, [3] [4] Maxwell's equations have no explicit factors of 4π in the formulae, whereas the inverse-square force laws – Coulomb's law and the Biot–Savart law – do have a factor of 4π attached to the r 2.
SI units for Maxwell's equations and the particle physicist's sign convention for the signature of Minkowski space (+ − − −), will be used throughout this article. Relationship with the classical fields
The commonly used set of units is the called the SI, which defines two constants, the vacuum permittivity (ε 0) and the vacuum permeability (μ 0). These can be used to convert SI units to their corresponding Heaviside–Lorentz values, as detailed below. For example, SI charge is √ ε 0 L 3 M / T 2.
The covariant formulation of classical electromagnetism refers to ways of writing the laws of classical electromagnetism (in particular, Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force) in a form that is manifestly invariant under Lorentz transformations, in the formalism of special relativity using rectilinear inertial coordinate systems.
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]
Maxwell's equations can directly give inhomogeneous wave equations for the electric field E and magnetic field B. [1] Substituting Gauss's law for electricity and Ampère's law into the curl of Faraday's law of induction, and using the curl of the curl identity ∇ × (∇ × X) = ∇(∇ ⋅ X) − ∇ 2 X (The last term in the right side is the vector Laplacian, not Laplacian applied on ...
The maxwell is a non-SI unit. [8] 1 maxwell = 1 gauss × 2. That is, one maxwell is the total flux across a surface of one square centimetre perpendicular to a magnetic field of strength one gauss. The weber is the related SI unit of magnetic flux, which was defined in 1946. [9] 1 maxwell ≘ 10 −4 tesla × (10 −2 metre) 2 = 10 −8 weber