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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 ]
Electric and magnetic fields of an electromagnetic wave along an axis. In vacuum these two fields are orthogonal and propagate at the speed of light as predicted by Maxwell. In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell published " A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field " in which he compiled all known equations of electricity and magnetism.
Working on the problem further, Maxwell showed that the equations predict the existence of waves of oscillating electric and magnetic fields that travel through empty space at a speed that could be predicted from simple electrical experiments; using the data available at the time, Maxwell obtained a velocity of 310,740,000 m/s.
Maxwell's equations explain how these waves can physically propagate through space. The changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field through Faraday's law. In turn, that electric field creates a changing magnetic field through Maxwell's modification of Ampère's circuital law.
This may be the most remarkable contribution of Maxwell's work, enabling him to derive the electromagnetic wave equation in his 1865 paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, showing that light is an electromagnetic wave. This lent the equations their full significance with respect to understanding the nature of the phenomena he ...
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 wavelength, but no one had been able to prove this, or generate or detect electromagnetic waves of other wavelengths. [15]
He shows that the associated complementary electric and magnetic fields of electromagnetism travel through space, in the form of waves, at a constant velocity of 3.0 × 10 8 m/s. He also proposes that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation and that waves of oscillating electric and magnetic fields travel through empty space at a speed ...
For example, there were many advances in the field of optics centuries before light was understood to be an electromagnetic wave. However, the theory of electromagnetism , as it is currently understood, grew out of Michael Faraday 's experiments suggesting the existence of an electromagnetic field and James Clerk Maxwell 's use of differential ...