From the page 9 of the Introduction to "QED" Feynman says,
"You're not going to be able to understand it... You see my
Physics students don't understand it either. That is because
I don't understand it. Nobody does!"
Good luck with analogies to things we seem to "understand".
--
Peter K1PO
Indialantic By-the-Sea, FL.
Makes me feel better :-)
but....
I just picked up "Advanced Electromagnetism and Vacuum Physics" by Patrick
Cornille (Advanced Electromagnetic Systems, France) published by World
Scientific Publishing Co. 2003 while browsing Strand Book Store in NYC (sale
$32) and the following Preface introduction caught my interest:
"The electromagnetic theory is the most important theory in physics, first
because the electromagnetic force is the only force that can be easily
manipulated by man with wellknown applications, secondly an extension of this
theory in the future may explain all the fundamental forces known to day in
nature.
A large volume of literature has appeared since the latter days of World war
II, written by researchers expanding the basic principles of electromagnetic
theory and applying Maxwell's equations to many important practical problems.
However, it is my opinion that the electromagnetic theory is not complete and
fully understood. A simple example proven these claims is given in this book
when the Helmholtz theorem is analyzed. We proved from a mathematical point of
view that Maxwell's equations are not complete since a scalar polarization must
be taken into account in the equations.
It is worth insisting that Maxwell, when he formulated out his theory, was
mainly guided by the experimental work performed by the physicists of his time.
He tried to give an hydrodynamics understanding of his theory, which is still
favored by certain physicists. Even today, Maxwell's equations are given as
granted, their validity being justified by experiments. Actually, there is no
demonstration of Maxwell's equations from first principles since the mechanical
approach used by Maxwell was rapidly abandoned in favor of a novel
nonmechanical entity: the electromagnetic field. While the Maxwell's equations
can obviously be obtained from a variational principle where they are derived
from an action appropriately chosen in order to recover them. In spite of the
success of the Maxwell theory in our present technology, we believe that the
last word on Maxwell's equations has not been said yet. The reason is that
Maxwell's equations raise a number of fundamental questions which have not been
answered in a satisfactory manner to date:
- One of these questions deals with the existence of a medium sustaining
transverse electromagnetic waves.
- Another question concerns the fact that Maxwell's equations are not Galilean
invariant.
- The question of covariance is also strongly related to the electromagnetic
induction phenomena, which is difficult to understand within the framework of
the special relativity theory.
- The discrete nature of the electric charge, where no physical concept has
been proposed to explain its quantization, remains one of the deepest mysteries
of physics.
- There is also the reason why the Lorentz force does not come from the
Maxwell's equations, but is additional to them. The reader is reminded that
classical electrodynamics demands a connection between the Maxwell's equations
and the Lorentz force.
In view of a prevalent trend towards a hydrodynamic description of matter and
radiation, we propose in this book another hydrodynamic wave model for the
existence and the propagation of matter and radiation in the vacuum where
equations of electrodynamics can be derived from simple fundamental principles.
We shall answer the above questions. " etc.
Hoping to find answers to some of the puzzling questions relating to antennas
and propagation, I am looking forward to time when I can immerse myself deeply
into this new stuff (and get more confused?)
Maybe this will intrigue some of youze guyz and help in sheding some light on
our neandertal brains?
73 Yuri, K3BU
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