The Catt Question
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The Catt Question
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Traditionally. when a TEM step (i.e. logic transition from low to high) ( Figures 3, 4, 5 from Electromagnetism 1 ) travels through a vacuum from left to right, guided by two conductors (the signal line and the 0v line), there are four factors which make up the wave;
- electric current in the conductors
i
- magnetic field, or flux, surrounding the conductors
B
- electric charge on the surface of the conductors +q
, -q
- electric field, or flux, in the vacuum terminating on
the charge (Figure
2), D
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Signal wire
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+5v ..0v |
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Animation by Eugen Hockenjos
© :)0i 2000
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The key to grasping the question is to concentrate on the electric charge -q on the bottom conductor. The step advances one foot per nanosecond. Extra negative charge appears on the surface of the bottom conductor to terminate the new lines (tubes) of electric flux D (figure 2) which appear between the top (signal) conductor and the bottom conductor. Since 1982 the question
has been: Where does this new charge come from? Nobel Prizewinner Professor Josephson say it comes from the west. Accredited experts line up, half behind Pepper (Southerners) and half behind Josephson ( Westerners ). Professor Martin Rees, President of The Royal Society, may or may not do something about it.
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