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Only today have I fully realised the
following.
There are four benchmarks in the
history of electromagnetic theory.
(1)
The beginning, with the
discoveries of Oersted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_%C3%98rsted
and Faraday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction
(2)
The development of
classical electromagnetic theory (Maxwell), based
on (1).
(3)
After 1950, the move from
analogue electronics (radio) to digital electronics.
(4) Light.
Light was of course there
from the start.
Digital electronics spawned
a new, radically different, electromagnetic theory which remains
ignored/suppressed by academia and by learned journals, for instance by The
Proceedings of the IEEE.
After 1950, digital
electronics rapidly became the vast majority of all electronics in the
world. At the core of (3) digital electronics is the TEM step travelling at
the speed of light (for the dielectric) from one logic gate to the next. It
is much closer to light than to (1), the discoveries which triggered the
development of classical electromagnetic theory. The only difference
between the logic step and light is that the logic step is not sinusoidal,
as is analogue electronics and also light. All the same, digital
electronics (3) is closer to light than it is to (1), the original discoveries
by Oersted and Faraday.
The outstanding feature
which differentiates between (1) and (2), or (1,2)
on the one hand and (3) and (4), or (3,4) on the other is in the matter of
velocity. In the case of (3,4), there is only one
velocity, the velocity of light; 300,000 in vacuo
and a little slower in other materials. In contrast, (1,2)
concentrates on stationary fields, charges and unchanging el;ectric currents, and migrates towards slowly
changing fields and charges. Also, in the case of (1,2)
there appears to be instantaneous action at a distance. For instance, the
amount of change in magnetic flux throughout a surface is thought to cause
an emf around the periphery of that surface, with
no consideration of the fact thateasuring
instrument cannot make a measurement relating to changing magnetic flux at
the far end of the surface. See "Faraday's
Law"
The response of
accredited experts in classical electromagnetics
to the "The Catt
Question" show that the TEM step, central to the digital
electronics of the last half century, is not understood by those
controlling the teaching and discussion of electromagnetic theory.
Ivor Catt. 11 February 2010
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