How AI Can Benefit Technical Writers

Original segment from The Principle of Relativity

Professional and Medium version by Prometheus AI

Tech Writer

It is well known that if we attempt to apply Maxwell’s electrodynamics, as conceived at the present time, to moving bodies, we are led to asymmetry which does not agree with observed phenomena.  Let us think of the mutual action between a magnet and a conductor.  The observed phenomena in this case depend only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, while according to the usual conception, a distinction must be made between the cases where the one or the other of the bodies is in motion.  If, for example, the magnet moves and the conductor is at rest, then an electric field of certain energy-value is produced in the neighbourhood of the magnet, which excites a current in those parts of the field where a conductor exists.  But if the magnet be at rest and the conductor be set in motion, no electric field is produced in the neighbourhood of the magnet, but an electromotive force which corresponds to no energy in itself is produced in the conductor; this causes an electric current of the same magnitude and the same career as the electric force, it being of course assumed that the relative motion in both of these cases is the same.

One of the problems with Maxwell’s electrodynamics as it is currently understood is that it does not account for the symmetry of the observed phenomena when a magnet and a conductor interact. The outcome of this interaction depends only on their relative motion, not on which one is moving and which one is stationary. For instance, if the magnet moves and the conductor is still, an electric field with a certain energy level is created around the magnet, which induces a current in the conductor if it is present in the field. However, if the magnet is still and the conductor moves, there is no electric field around the magnet, but only an electromotive force in the conductor that has no energy by itself, but produces an electric current of the same size and direction as the electric field in the previous case. The relative motion is assumed to be the same in both cases.

Maxwell’s electrodynamics is a set of equations that describe the behaviour of electric and magnet fields and how they interact with matter.  They also describe how changing electric and magnetic fields can create each other, leading to electromagnetic waves that travel through space at the speed of light. 

One problem with how Maxwell’s electrodynamics is understood today, is that it fails to recognise the lop-sidedness of this interaction when one or the other body is moving or still, the direction and speed of the movement.

However, the common view, calls us to distinguish between:

1.     A moving magnet with a stationary conductor – the moving magnet creates an electric field around itself that has a specific amount of energy.  The energy generates a current when the conductor crosses the current.

2.     A stationary magnet with a moving conductor – the moving conductor does not create any electric field around the magnet, but the magnet experiences an electromotive force with no energy of its own to cause a current in the conductor.

Assumption:  In both situations, the relative motion and current is the same in degree and direction.