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Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism, science of charge and of the forces
and elds associated with charge. Electricity and TABLE OF CONTENTS
magnetism are two aspects of electromagnetism.
Introduction

Electricity and magnetism were long thought to be Fundamentals

separate forces. It was not until the 19th century that they Effects of varying magnetic fields
were nally treated as interrelated phenomena. In 1905
Effects of varying electric fields
Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity established
Historical survey
beyond a doubt that both are aspects of one common
phenomenon. At a practical level, however, electric and
magnetic forces behave quite differently and are
described by different equations. Electric forces are produced by electric charges either at
rest or in motion. Magnetic forces, on the other hand, are produced only by moving charges
and act solely on charges in motion.

Electric phenomena occur even in neutral matter because the forces act on the individual
charged constituents. The electric force in particular is responsible for most of the physical
and chemical properties of atoms and molecules. It is enormously strong compared with
gravity. For example, the absence of only one electron out of every billion molecules in two
70-kilogram (154-pound) persons standing two metres (two yards) apart would repel them
with a 30,000-ton force. On a more familiar scale, electric phenomena are responsible for the
lightning and thunder accompanying certain storms.

Electric and magnetic forces can be detected in regions called electric and magnetic elds.
These elds are fundamental in nature and can exist in space far from the charge or current
that generated them. Remarkably, electric elds can produce magnetic elds and vice versa,
independent of any external charge. A changing magnetic eld produces an electric eld, as
the English physicist Michael Faraday discovered in work that forms the basis of electric
power generation. Conversely, a changing electric eld produces a magnetic eld, as the
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell deduced. The mathematical equations formulated by
Maxwell incorporated light and wave phenomena into electromagnetism. He showed that
electric and magnetic elds travel together through space as waves of electromagnetic
radiation, with the changing elds mutually sustaining each other. Examples of
electromagnetic waves traveling through space independent of matter are radio and
television waves, microwaves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma
rays. All of these waves travel at the same speed—namely, the velocity of light (roughly

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300,000 kilometres, or 186,000 miles, per second). They differ from each other only in the
frequency at which their electric and magnetic elds oscillate.

Maxwell’s equations still provide a complete and elegant description of electromagnetism

down to, but not including, the subatomic scale. The interpretation of his work, however, was
broadened in the 20th century. Einstein’s special relativity theory merged electric and
magnetic elds into one common eld and limited the velocity of all matter to the velocity of
electromagnetic radiation. During the late 1960s, physicists discovered that other forces in
nature have elds with a mathematical structure similar to that of the electromagnetic eld.
These other forces are the strong force, responsible for the energy released in nuclear fusion,
and the weak force, observed in the radioactive decay of unstable atomic nuclei. In particular,
the weak and electromagnetic forces have been combined into a common force called the
electroweak force. The goal of many physicists to unite all of the fundamental forces,
including gravity, into one grand uni ed theory has not been attained to date.

An important aspect of electromagnetism is the science of electricity, which is concerned

with the behaviour of aggregates of charge, including the distribution of charge within
matter and the motion of charge from place to place. Different types of materials are
classi ed as either conductors or insulators on the basis of whether charges can move freely
through their constituent matter. Electric current is the measure of the ow of charges; the
laws governing currents in matter are important in technology, particularly in the production,
distribution, and control of energy.

The concept of voltage, like those of charge and current, is fundamental to the science of
electricity. Voltage is a measure of the propensity of charge to ow from one place to
another; positive charges generally tend to move from a region of high voltage to a region of
lower voltage. A common problem in electricity is determining the relationship between
voltage and current or charge in a given physical situation.

This article seeks to provide a qualitative understanding of electromagnetism as well as a

quantitative appreciation for the magnitudes associated with electromagnetic phenomena.

Fundamentals

Everyday modern life is pervaded by electromagnetic phenomena. When a lightbulb is

switched on, a current ows through a thin lament in the bulb, and the current heats the
lament to such a high temperature that it glows, illuminating its surroundings. Electric
clocks and connections link simple devices of this kind into complex systems such as traf c
lights that are timed and synchronized with the speed of vehicular ow. Radio and television
sets receive information carried by electromagnetic waves traveling through space at the

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speed of light. To start an automobile, currents in an electric starter motor generate

magnetic elds that rotate the motor shaft and drive engine pistons to compress an
explosive mixture of gasoline and air; the spark initiating the combustion is an electric
discharge, which makes up a momentary current ow.

Coulomb’s law

Many of these devices and phenomena are complex, but they derive from the same
fundamental laws of electromagnetism. One of the most important of these is Coulomb’s
law, which describes the electric force between charged objects. Formulated by the 18th-
century French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, it is analogous to Newton’s law for
the gravitational force. Both gravitational and electric forces decrease with the square of the
distance between the objects, and both forces act along a line between them. In Coulomb’s
law, however, the magnitude and sign of the electric force are determined by the charge,
rather than the mass, of an object. Thus, charge determines how electromagnetism
in uences the motion of charged objects. (Charge is a basic property of matter. Every
constituent of matter has an electric charge with a value that can be positive, negative, or
zero. For example, electrons are negatively charged, and atomic nuclei are positively charged.
Most bulk matter has an equal amount of positive and negative charge and thus has zero net
charge.)

According to Coulomb, the electric force for charges at rest has the following properties:

(1) Like charges repel each other, and unlike charges attract. Thus, two negative charges repel
one another, while a positive charge attracts a negative charge.

(2) The attraction or repulsion acts along the line between the two charges.

(3) The size of the force varies inversely as the square of the distance between the two
charges. Therefore, if the distance between the two charges is doubled, the attraction or
repulsion becomes weaker, decreasing to one-fourth of the original value. If the charges
come 10 times closer, the size of the force increases by a factor of 100.

(4) The size of the force is proportional to the value of each charge. The unit used to measure
charge is the coulomb (C). If there were two positive charges, one of 0.1 coulomb and the
second of 0.2 coulomb, they would repel each other with a force that depends on the
product 0.2 × 0.1. If each of the charges were reduced by one-half, the repulsion would be
reduced to one-quarter of its former value.

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Static cling is a practical example of the Coulomb force. In static cling, garments made of
synthetic material collect a charge, especially in dry winter air. A plastic or rubber comb
passed quickly through hair also becomes charged and will pick up bits of paper. The
synthetic fabric and the comb are insulators; charge on these objects cannot move easily
from one part of the object to another. Similarly, an of ce copy machine uses electric force to
attract particles of ink to paper.

Principle of charge conservation

Like Coulomb’s law, the principle of charge conservation is a fundamental law of nature.
According to this principle, the charge of an isolated system cannot change. If an additional
positively charged particle appears within a system, a particle with a negative charge of the
same magnitude will be created at the same time; thus, the principle of conservation of
charge is maintained. In nature, a pair of oppositely charged particles is created when high-
energy radiation interacts with matter; an electron and a positron are created in a process
known as pair production.

The smallest subdivision of the amount of charge that a particle can have is the charge of
−19
one proton, +1.602 × 10 coulomb. The electron has a charge of the same magnitude but
−19
opposite sign—i.e., −1.602 × 10 coulomb. An ordinary ashlight battery delivers a current
that provides a total charge ow of approximately 5,000 coulomb, which corresponds to
22
more than 10 electrons, before it is exhausted.

Electric current is a measure of the ow of charge, as, for example, charge owing through a
wire. The size of the current is measured in amperes and symbolized by i. An ampere of
current represents the passage of one coulomb of charge per second, or 6.2 billion billion
18
electrons (6.2 × 10 electrons) per second. A current is positive when it is in the direction of
the ow of positive charges; its direction is opposite to the ow of negative charges.

Electric elds and forces

The force and conservation laws are only two aspects of electromagnetism, however. Electric
and magnetic forces are caused by electromagnetic elds. The term eld denotes a property
of space, so that the eld quantity has a numerical value at each point of space. These values
may also vary with time. The value of the electric or magnetic eld is a vector—i.e., a quantity
having both magnitude and direction. The value of the electric eld at a point in space, for
example, equals the force that would be exerted on a unit charge at that position in space.

Every charged object sets up an electric eld in the surrounding space. A second charge
“feels” the presence of this eld. The second charge is either attracted toward the initial
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charge or repelled from it, depending on the signs of the charges. Of course, since the
second charge also has an electric eld, the rst charge feels its presence and is either
attracted or repelled by the second charge too.

The electric eld from a charge is directed away from the charge when the charge is positive
and toward the charge when it is negative. The electric eld from a charge at rest is shown in
Figure 1 for various locations in space. The arrows point in the direction of the electric eld,
and the length of the arrows indicates the strength of the eld at the midpoint of the arrows.

If a positive charge were placed in the electric eld, it

would feel a force in the direction of the eld. A negative
charge would feel a force in the direction opposite the
direction of the eld.

electric field In calculations, it is often more convenient to deal

Figure 1: Electric fields. (Left) Field of a directly with the electric eld than with the charges.
positive electric charge and (right) field of a Frequently, more is known about the eld than about
negative electric charge. the distribution of charges in space. For example, the
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and
distribution of charges in conductors is generally
Astronomy, Michigan State University
unknown because the charges move freely within the
conductor. In static situations, however, the electric eld
in a conductor in equilibrium has a de nite value, zero, because any force on the charges
inside the conductor redistributes them until the eld vanishes. The unit of electric eld is
newtons per coulomb, or volts per metre.

The electric potential is another useful eld. It provides an alternative to the electric eld in
electrostatics problems. The potential is easier to use, however, because it is a single number,
a scalar, instead of a vector. The difference in potential between two places measures the
degree to which charges are in uenced to move from one place to another. If the potential is
the same at two places (i.e., if the places have the same voltage), charges will not be
in uenced to move from one place to the other. The potential on an object or at some point
in space is measured in volts; it equals the electrostatic energy that a unit charge would have
at that position. In a typical 12-volt car battery, the battery terminal that is marked with a +
sign is at a potential 12 volts greater than the potential of the terminal marked with the −
sign. When a wire, such as the lament of a car headlight, is connected between the + and
the − terminals of the battery, charges move through the lament as an electric current and
heat the lament, and the hot lament radiates light.

Magnetic elds and forces

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The magnetic force in uences only those charges that are already in motion. It is transmitted
by the magnetic eld. Both magnetic elds and magnetic forces are more complicated than
electric elds and electric forces. The magnetic eld does not point along the direction of the
source of the eld; instead, it points in a perpendicular direction. In addition, the magnetic
force acts in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction of the eld. In comparison, both
the electric force and the electric eld point directly toward or away from the charge.

The present discussion will deal with simple situations in which the magnetic eld is
produced by a current of charge in a wire. Certain materials, such as copper, silver, and
aluminum, are conductors that allow charge to ow freely from place to place. If an external
in uence establishes a current in a conductor, the current generates a magnetic eld. For a
long straight wire, the magnetic eld has a direction that encircles the wire on a plane
perpendicular to the wire. The strength of the magnetic eld decreases with distance from
the wire. The arrows in Figure 2 represent the size and direction of the magnetic eld for a
current moving in the direction indicated. Figure 2A shows an end view with the current
coming toward the reader, while Figure 2B provides a three-dimensional view of the
magnetic eld at one position along the wire.

In subsequent gures, continuous lines will be used to

represent the direction of electric and magnetic elds.
These lines emphasize the important fact that electric
elds begin on positive charges and end on negative
charges, while magnetic elds do not have beginnings

magnetic field or ends and close on themselves. The magnetic eld

shown in Figure 2 is unusually simple. Highly complex
Figure 2: Magnetic field of a long wire. (A)
An end view, with the current flowing toward and useful magnetic elds can be generated by the
the viewer. (B) A three-dimensional view. proper choice of conductors to carry electric currents.
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and Under development are thermonuclear fusion reactors
Astronomy, Michigan State University
for obtaining energy from the fusion of light nuclei in the
form of very hot plasmas of hydrogen isotopes. The
plasmas have to be con ned by magnetic elds (dubbed “magnetic bottles”) as no material
container can withstand such high temperatures. Charged particles are also con ned by
magnetic elds in nature. Large numbers of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons,
are trapped in huge bands around Earth by its magnetic eld. These bands are known as the
Van Allen radiation belts. Disturbance of Earth’s con ning magnetic eld produces
spectacular displays, the so-called northern lights, in which trapped charged particles are
freed and crash through the atmosphere to Earth.

Interaction of a magnetic eld with a charge

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How does the magnetic eld interact with a charged object? If the charge is at rest, there is
no interaction. If the charge moves, however, it is subjected to a force, the size of which
increases in direct proportion with the velocity of the charge. The force has a direction that is
perpendicular both to the direction of motion of the charge and to the direction of the
magnetic eld. There are two possible precisely opposite directions for such a force for a
given direction of motion. This apparent ambiguity is resolved by the fact that one of the two
directions applies to the force on a moving positive charge while the other direction applies
to the force on a moving negative charge. Figure 3 illustrates the directions of the magnetic
force on positive charges and on negative charges as they move in a magnetic eld that is
perpendicular to the motion.

Depending on the initial orientation of the particle

velocity to the magnetic eld, charges having a constant
speed in a uniform magnetic eld will follow a circular or
helical path.

Electric currents in wires are not the only source of

magnetic elds. Naturally occurring minerals exhibit
magnetic force magnetic properties and have magnetic elds. These
Figure 3: Magnetic force on moving charges. magnetic elds result from the motion of electrons in
The magnetic force F is proportional to the the atoms of the material. They also result from a
charge and to the magnitude of velocity v
property of electrons called the magnetic dipole
times the magnetic field B.
moment, which is related to the intrinsic spin of
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and
Astronomy, Michigan State University individual electrons. In most materials, little or no eld is
observed outside the matter because of the random
orientation of the various constituent atoms. In some materials such as iron, however, atoms
within certain distances tend to become aligned in one particular direction.

Magnets have numerous applications, ranging from use as toys and paper holders on home
refrigerators to essential components in electric generators and machines that can
accelerate particles to speeds approaching that of light. The practical application of
magnetism in technology is greatly enhanced by using iron and other ferromagnetic
materials with electric currents in devices like motors. These materials amplify the magnetic
eld produced by the currents and thereby create more powerful elds.

While electric and magnetic effects are well separated in many phenomena and
applications, they are coupled closely together when there are rapid time uctuations.
Faraday’s law of induction describes how a time-varying magnetic eld produces an electric
eld. Important practical applications include the electric generator and transformer. In a
generator, the physical motion of a magnetic eld produces electricity for power. In a
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transformer, electric power is converted from one voltage level to another by the magnetic
eld of one circuit inducing an electric current in another circuit.

The existence of electromagnetic waves depends on the interaction between electric and
magnetic elds. Maxwell postulated that a time-varying electric eld produces a magnetic
eld. His theory predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves in which each time-
varying eld produces the other eld. For example, radio waves are generated by electronic
circuits known as oscillators that cause rapidly oscillating currents to ow in antennas; the
rapidly varying magnetic eld has an associated varying electric eld. The result is the
emission of radio waves into space (see electromagnetic radiation: Generation of
electromagnetic radiation).

Many electromagnetic devices can be described by circuits consisting of conductors and

other elements. These circuits may operate with a steady ow of current, as in a ashlight, or
with time-varying currents. Important elements in circuits include sources of power called
electromotive forces; resistors, which control the ow of current for a given voltage;
capacitors, which store charge and energy temporarily; and inductors, which also store
electrical energy for a limited time. Circuits with these elements can be described entirely
with algebra. (For more complicated circuit elements such as transistors, see semiconductor
device and integrated circuit).

Two mathematical quantities associated with vector elds, like the electric eld E and the
magnetic eld B, are useful for describing electromagnetic phenomena. They are the ux of
such a eld through a surface and the line integral of the eld along a path. The ux of a eld
through a surface measures how much of the eld penetrates through the surface; for every
small section of the surface, the ux is proportional to the area of that section and depends
also on the relative orientation of the section and the eld. The line integral of a eld along a
path measures the degree to which the eld is aligned with the path; for every small section
of path, it is proportional to the length of that section and is also dependent on the
alignment of the eld with that section of path. When the eld is perpendicular to the path,
there is no contribution to the line integral. The uxes of E and B through a surface and the
line integrals of these elds along a path play an important role in electromagnetic theory. As
examples, the ux of the electric eld E through a closed surface measures the amount of
charge contained within the surface; the ux of the magnetic eld B through a closed
surface is always zero because there are no magnetic monopoles (magnetic charges
consisting of a single pole) to act as sources of the magnetic eld in the way that charge is a
source of the electric eld.

Effects of varying magnetic elds

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The merger of electricity and magnetism from distinct phenomena into electromagnetism is
tied to three closely related events. The rst was Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery
of the in uence of an electric current on a magnetic needle—namely, that magnetic elds
are produced by electric currents. Ørsted’s 1820 report of his observation spurred an intense
effort by scientists to prove that magnetic elds can induce currents. The second event was
Faraday’s experimental proof that a changing magnetic eld can induce a current in a
circuit. The third was Maxwell’s prediction that a changing electric eld has an associated
magnetic eld. The technological revolution attributed to the development of electric power
and radio communications can be traced to these three landmarks.

Faraday’s law of induction

Faraday’s discovery in 1831 of the phenomenon of magnetic induction is one of the great
milestones in the quest toward understanding and exploiting nature. Stated simply, Faraday
found that (1) a changing magnetic eld in a circuit induces an electromotive force in the
circuit; and (2) the magnitude of the electromotive force equals the rate at which the ux of
the magnetic eld through the circuit changes. The ux is a measure of how much eld
penetrates through the circuit. The electromotive force is measured in volts and is
represented by the equation

Here, Φ, the ux of the vector eld B through the circuit, measures how much of the eld
passes through the circuit. To illustrate the meaning of ux, imagine how much water from a
steady rain will pass through a circular ring of area A. When the ring is placed parallel to the
path of the water drops, no water passes through the ring. The maximum rate at which drops
of rain pass through the ring occurs when the surface is perpendicular to the motion of the
drops. The rate of water drops crossing the surface is the ux of the vector eld ρv through
that surface, where ρ is the density of water drops and v represents the velocity of the water.
Clearly, the angle between v and the surface is essential in determining the ux. To specify
the orientation of the surface, a vector A is de ned so that its magnitude is the surface area A
in units of square metres and its direction is perpendicular to the surface. The rate at which
raindrops pass through the surface is ρv cos θA, where θ is the angle between v and A. Using
vector notation, the ux is ρv · A. For the magnetic eld, the amount of ux through a small
area represented by the vector dA is given by B · dA. For a circuit consisting of a single turn of
wire, adding the contributions from the entire surface that is surrounded by the wire gives
the magnetic ux Φ of equation (1). The rate of change of this ux is the induced
electromotive force. The units of magnetic ux are webers, with one weber equaling one
tesla per square metre. Finally, the minus sign in equation (1) indicates the direction of the
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induced electromotive force and hence of any induced current. The magnetic ux through
the circuit generated by the induced current is in whatever direction will keep the total ux
in the circuit from changing. The minus sign in equation (1) is an example of Lenz’s law for
magnetic systems. This law, deduced by the Russian-born physicist Heinrich Friedrich Emil
Lenz, states that “what happens is that which opposes any change in the system.”

Faraday’s law is valid regardless of the process that causes the

magnetic ux to change. It may be that a magnet is moved
closer to a circuit or that a circuit is moved closer to a magnet.
Figure 4 shows a magnet brought near a conducting ring and gives the direction of the
induced current and eld, thus illustrating both Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws. Another
alternative is that the circuit may change in size in a xed external magnetic eld or, as in the
case of alternating-current (AC) generation, that the circuit may be a coil of conducting wire
rotating in a magnetic eld so that the ux Φ varies sinusoidally in time.

The magnetic ux Φ through a circuit has to be

considered carefully in the application of Faraday’s law
given in equation (1). For example, if a circuit consists of a
coil with ve closely spaced turns and if ϕ is the magnetic
ux through a single turn, then the value of Φ for the
ve-turn circuit that must be used in Faraday’s law is Φ =
5ϕ. If the ve turns are not the same size and closely
spaced, the problem of determining Φ can be quite
complex.

Figure 4: Demonstration of Faraday's and Self-inductance and mutual inductance

Lenz's laws.
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and The self-inductance of a circuit is used to describe the
Astronomy, Michigan State University
reaction of the circuit to a changing current in the circuit,
while the mutual inductance with respect to a second
circuit describes the reaction to a changing current in the second circuit. When a current i
1
ows in circuit 1, i produces a magnetic eld B ; the magnetic ux through circuit 1 due to
1 1
current i is Φ . Since B is proportional to i , Φ is as well. The constant of proportionality is
1 11 1 1 11
the self-inductance L of the circuit. It is de ned by the equation
1

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The units of inductance are henrys. If a second circuit is present, some of the eld B will pass
1
through circuit 2 and there will be a magnetic ux Φ in circuit 2 due to the current i . The
21 1
mutual inductance M is given by
21

The magnetic ux in circuit 1 due to a current in circuit 2 is given by Φ = M i . An important

12 12 2
property of the mutual inductance is that M = M . It is therefore suf cient to use the label
21 12
M without subscripts for the mutual inductance of two circuits.

The value of the mutual inductance of two circuits can range from +Square root of√L L to
1 2
−Square root of√L L , depending on the ux linkage between the circuits. If the two circuits
1 2
are very far apart or if the eld of one circuit provides no magnetic ux through the other
circuit, the mutual inductance is zero. The maximum possible value of the mutual
inductance of two circuits is approached as the two circuits produce B elds with
increasingly similar spatial con gurations.

If the rate of change with respect to time is taken for the terms on both sides of equation (2),
the result is dΦ /dt = L di /dt. According to Faraday’s law, dΦ /dt is the negative of the
11 1 1 11
induced electromotive force. The result is the equation frequently used for a single inductor
in an AC circuit—i.e.,

The phenomenon of self-induction was rst recognized by the

American scientist Joseph Henry. He was able to generate large and spectacular electric arcs
by interrupting the current in a large copper coil with many turns. While a steady current is
1 2
owing in a coil, the energy in the magnetic eld is given by / Li . If both the inductance L
2
and the current i are large, the amount of energy is also large. If the current is interrupted, as,
for example, by opening a knife-blade switch, the current and therefore the magnetic ux
through the coil drop quickly. Equation (4) describes the resulting electromotive force
induced in the coil, and a large potential difference is developed between the two poles of
the switch. The energy stored in the magnetic eld of the coil is dissipated as heat and
radiation in an electric arc across the space between the terminals of the switch. Due to
advances in superconducting wires for electromagnets, it is possible to use large magnets
with magnetic elds of several teslas for temporarily storing electric energy as energy in the

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magnetic eld. This is done to accommodate short-term uctuations in the consumption of

electric power.

A transformer is an example of a device that uses circuits with

maximum mutual induction. Figure 5 illustrates the
con guration of a typical transformer. Here, coils of insulated
conducting wire are wound around a ring of iron constructed of thin isolated laminations or
sheets. The laminations minimize eddy currents in the iron. Eddy currents are circulatory
currents induced in the metal by the changing magnetic eld. These currents produce an
undesirable by-product—heat in the iron. Energy loss in a transformer can be reduced by
using thinner laminations, very “soft” (low-carbon) iron and wire with a larger cross section, or
by winding the primary and secondary circuits with conductors that have very low resistance.
Unfortunately, reducing the heat loss increases the cost of transformers. Transformers used
to transmit and distribute power are commonly 98 to 99 percent ef cient. While eddy
currents are a problem in transformers, they are useful for heating objects in a vacuum. Eddy
currents are induced in the object to be heated by surrounding a relatively nonconducting
vacuum enclosure with a coil carrying a high-frequency alternating current.

In a transformer, the iron ensures that nearly all the lines

of B passing through one circuit also pass through the
second circuit and that, in fact, essentially all the
magnetic ux is con ned to the iron. Each turn of the
conducting coils has the same magnetic ux; thus, the
total ux for each coil is proportional to the number of
Figure 5: An AC transformer (see text).
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and
turns in the coil. As a result, if a source of sinusoidally
Astronomy, Michigan State University varying electromotive force is connected to one coil, the
electromotive force in the second coil is given by

Thus, depending on the ratio of N to N (where N and N are the number of turns in the rst
2 1 1 2
and second coils, respectively), the transformer can be either a step-up or a step-down device
for alternating voltages. For many reasons, including safety, generation and consumption of
electric power occur at relatively low voltages. Step-up transformers are used to obtain high
voltages before electric power is transmitted, since for a given amount of power, the current
in the transmission lines is much smaller. This minimizes energy lost by resistive heating of
the conductors.

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Faraday’s law constitutes the basis for the power industry and for the transformation of
mechanical energy into electric energy. In 1821, a decade before his discovery of magnetic
induction, Faraday conducted experiments with electric wires rotating around compass
needles. This earlier work, in which a wire carrying a current rotated around a magnetized
needle and a magnetic needle was made to rotate around a wire carrying an electric current,
provided the groundwork for the development of the electric motor.

Effects of varying electric elds

Maxwell’s prediction that a changing electric eld generates a magnetic eld was a
masterstroke of pure theory. The Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic eld uni ed all
that was hitherto known about electricity and magnetism and predicted the existence of an
electromagnetic phenomenon that can travel as waves with the velocity of 1/Square root
of√ε μ in a vacuum. That velocity, which is based on constants obtained from purely electric
0 0
measurements, corresponds to the speed of light. Consequently, Maxwell concluded that
light itself was an electromagnetic phenomenon. Later, Einstein’s special relativity theory
postulated that the value of the speed of light is independent of the motion of the source of
the light. Since then, the speed of light has been measured with increasing accuracy. In 1983
it was de ned to be exactly 299,792,458 metres per second. Together with the cesium clock,
which has been used to de ne the second, the speed of light serves as the new standard for
length.

The circuit in Figure 6 is an example of a magnetic eld generated by a changing electric

eld. A capacitor with parallel plates is charged at a constant rate by a steady current owing
through the long, straight leads in Figure 6A.

The objective is to apply Ampère’s circuital law for

magnetic elds to the path P, which goes around the
wire in Figure 6A. This law (named in honour of the
French physicist André-Marie Ampère) can be derived
from the Biot and Savart equation for the magnetic eld
produced by a current. Using vector calculus notation,
Figure 6: Current i charging a capacitor as
an illustration of Maxwell's displacement
Ampère’s law states that the integral ∮B · dl along a
current (see text). closed path surrounding the current i is equal to μ i. (An
0
Courtesy of the Department of Physics and
integral is essentially a sum, and, in this case, ∮B · dl is
Astronomy, Michigan State University
the sum of B cos θdl taken for a small length of the path
until the complete loop is included. At each segment of
the path dl, θ is the angle between the eld B and dl. ) The current i in Ampère’s law is the
total ux of the current density J through any surface surrounded by the closed path. In

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Figure 6A, the closed path is labeled P, and a surface S is surrounded by path P. All the
1
current density through S lies within the conducting wire. The total ux of the current
1
density is the current i owing through the wire. The result for surface S re ects the value of
1
the magnetic eld around the wire in the region of the path P. In Figure 6B, path P is the
same but the surface S passes between the two plates of the capacitor. The value of the
2
total ux of the current density through the surface should also be i. There is, however, clearly
no motion of charge at all through the surface S . The dilemma is that the value of the
2
integral ∮B · dl for the path P cannot be both μ i and zero.
0

Maxwell’s resolution of this dilemma was his conclusion that there must be some other kind
of current density, called the displacement current J , for which the total ux through the
d
surface S would be the same as the current i through the surface S . J would take, for the
2 1 d
surface S , the place of the current density J associated with the movement of charge, since
2
J is clearly zero due to the lack of charges between the plates of the capacitor. What happens
between the plates while the current i is owing? Because the amount of charge on the
capacitor increases with time, the electric eld between the plates increases with time too. If
the current stops, there is an electric eld between the plates as long as the plates are
charged, but there is no magnetic eld around the wire. Maxwell decided that the new type
of current density was associated with the changing of the electric eld. He found that

where D = ε E and E is the electric eld between the plates. In situations where matter is
0
present, the eld D in equation (6) is modi ed to include polarization effects; the result is D =
ε E + P. The eld D is measured in coulombs per square metre. Adding the displacement
0
current to Ampère’s law represented Maxwell’s prediction that a changing electric eld also
could be a source of the magnetic eld B. Following Maxwell’s predictions of
electromagnetic waves, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz initiated the era of radio
communications in 1887 by generating and detecting electromagnetic waves.

Using vector calculus notation, the four equations of Maxwell’s

theory of electromagnetism are

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where D = ε E + P, and H = B/μ − M. The rst equation is based on Coulomb’s inverse square
0 0
law for the force between two charges; it is a form of Gauss’s law, which relates the ux of the
electric eld through a closed surface to the total charge enclosed by the surface. The second
equation is based on the fact that apparently no magnetic monopoles exist in nature; if they
did, they would be point sources of magnetic eld. The third is a statement of Faraday’s law
of magnetic induction, which reveals that a changing magnetic eld generates an electric
eld. The fourth is Ampère’s law as extended by Maxwell to include the displacement current
discussed above; it associates a magnetic eld to a changing electric eld as well as to an
electric current.

Maxwell’s four equations represent a complete description of the classical theory of

electromagnetism. His discovery that light is an electromagnetic wave meant that optics
could be understood as part of electromagnetism. Only in microscopic situations is it
necessary to modify Maxwell’s equations to include quantum effects. That modi cation,
known as quantum electrodynamics (QED), accounts for certain atomic properties to a
degree of precision exceeding one part in 100 million.

Sometimes it is necessary to shield apparatus from external electromagnetic elds. For a

static electric eld, this is a simple matter; the apparatus is surrounded by a shield made of a
good conductor (e.g., copper). Shielding apparatus from a steady magnetic eld is more
dif cult because materials with in nite magnetic permeability μ do not exist; for example, a
hollow shield made of soft iron will reduce the magnetic eld inside to a considerable extent
but not completely. It is sometimes possible to superpose a eld in the opposite direction to
produce a very low eld region and then to use additional material with a high μ for
shielding. In the case of electromagnetic waves, the penetration of the waves in matter
varies, depending on the frequency of the radiation and the electric conductivity of the
medium. The skin depth δ (which is the distance in the conducting medium traversed for an
amplitude decrease of 1/e, about 1/3) is given by

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At high frequency, the skin depth is small. Therefore, to transmit electronic messages
through seawater, for example, a very low frequency must be used to get a reasonable
fraction of the signal far below the surface.

A metal shield can have some holes in it and still be effective. For instance, a typical
microwave oven has a frequency of 2.5 gigahertz, which corresponds to a wavelength of
about 12 centimetres for the electromagnetic wave inside the oven. The metal shield on the
door has small holes about two millimetres in diameter; the shield works because the
wavelength of the microwave radiation is much greater than the size of the holes. On the
other hand, the same shield is not effective with radiation of a much shorter wavelength.
Visible light passes through the holes in the shield, as evidenced by the fact that it is possible
to see inside a microwave oven when the door is closed.

Edwin Kashy Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

Historical survey
Electric and magnetic forces have been known since antiquity, but they were regarded as
separate phenomena for centuries. Magnetism was studied experimentally at least as early
as the 13th century; the properties of the magnetic compass undoubtedly aroused interest in
the phenomenon. Systematic investigations of electricity were delayed until the invention of
practical devices for producing electric charge and currents. As soon as inexpensive, easy-to-
use sources of electricity became available, scientists produced a wealth of experimental
data and theoretical insights. As technology advanced, they studied, in turn, magnetism and
electrostatics, electric currents and conduction, electrochemistry, magnetic and electric
induction, the interrelationship between electricity and magnetism, and nally the
fundamental nature of electric charge.

Early observations and applications

The ancient Greeks knew about the attractive force of both magnetite and rubbed amber.
Magnetite, a magnetic oxide of iron mentioned in Greek texts as early as 800 BCE, was mined
in the province of Magnesia in Thessaly. Thales of Miletus, who lived nearby, may have been
the rst Greek to study magnetic forces. He apparently knew that magnetite attracts iron
and that rubbing amber (a fossil tree resin that the Greeks called ēlektron) would make it
attract such lightweight objects as feathers. According to Lucretius, the Roman author of the
philosophical poem De rerum natura (“On the Nature of Things”) in the 1st century BCE, the
term magnet was derived from the province of Magnesia. Pliny the Elder, however,
attributed it to the supposed discoverer of the mineral, the shepherd Magnes, “the nails of

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whose shoes and the tip of whose staff stuck fast in a magnetic eld while he pastured his
ocks.”

The oldest practical application of magnetism was the

magnetic compass, but its origin remains unknown.
Some historians believe it was used in China as far back
as the 26th century BCE; others contend that it was
invented by the Italians or Arabs and introduced to the
Chinese during the 13th century CE. The earliest extant
European reference is by Alexander Neckam (died 1217)
of England.

magnetite
The rst experiments with magnetism are attributed to
Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt, a French Crusader and
Magnetite.
Mineral Information Institute
engineer. In his oft-cited Epistola de magnete (1269;
“Letter on the Magnet”), Peregrinus described having
placed a thin iron rectangle on different parts of a spherically shaped piece of magnetite (or
lodestone) and marked the lines along which it set itself. The lines formed a set of meridians
of longitude passing through two points at opposite ends of the stone, in much the same
way as the lines of longitude on Earth’s surface intersect at the North and South poles. By
analogy, Peregrinus called the points the poles of the magnet. He further noted that, when a
magnet is cut into pieces, each piece still has two poles. He also observed that unlike poles
attract each other and that a strong magnet can reverse the polarity of a weaker one.

Emergence of the modern sciences of electricity and magnetism

The founder of the modern sciences of electricity and magnetism was William Gilbert,
physician to both Elizabeth I and James I of England. Gilbert spent 17 years experimenting
with magnetism and, to a lesser extent, electricity. He assembled the results of his
experiments and all of the available knowledge on magnetism in the treatise De Magnete,
Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (“On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies,
and the Great Magnet of the Earth”), published in 1600. As suggested by the title, Gilbert
described Earth as a huge magnet. He introduced the term electric for the force between
two objects charged by friction and showed that frictional electricity occurs in many
common materials. He also noted one of the primary distinctions between magnetism and
electricity: the force between magnetic objects tends to align the objects relative to each
other and is affected only slightly by most intervening objects, while the force between
electri ed objects is primarily a force of attraction or repulsion between the objects and is
grossly affected by intervening matter. Gilbert attributed the electri cation of a body by
friction to the removal of a uid, or “humour,” which then left an “ef uvium,” or atmosphere,
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around the body. The language is quaint, but, if the “humour” is renamed “charge” and the
“ef uvium” renamed “electric eld,” Gilbert’s notions closely approach modern ideas.

Pioneering efforts

During the 17th and early 18th centuries, as better sources of charge were developed, the
study of electric effects became increasingly popular. The rst machine to generate an
electric spark was built in 1663 by Otto von Guericke, a German physicist and engineer.
Guericke’s electric generator consisted of a sulfur globe mounted on an iron shaft. The globe
could be turned with one hand and rubbed with the other. Electri ed by friction, the sphere
alternately attracted and repulsed light objects from the oor.

Stephen Gray, a British chemist, is credited with

discovering that electricity can ow (1729). He found that
corks stuck in the ends of glass tubes become electri ed
when the tubes are rubbed. He also transmitted
electricity approximately 150 metres through a hemp
thread supported by silk cords and, in another
demonstration, sent electricity even farther through
Otto von Guericke's electrostatic metal wire. Gray concluded that electricity owed
generator everywhere.
The electrostatic generator of Otto van
Guericke, which he built in 1663. From the mid-18th through the early 19th centuries,
Liszt Collection/Heritage-Images scientists believed that electricity was composed of uid.
In 1733 Charles François de Cisternay DuFay, a French
chemist, announced that electricity consisted of two uids: “vitreous” (from the Latin for
“glass”), or positive, electricity; and “resinous,” or negative, electricity. When DuFay electri ed
a glass rod, it attracted nearby bits of cork. Yet, if the rod touched the pieces of cork, the cork
fragments were repelled and also repelled one another. DuFay accounted for this
phenomenon by explaining that, in general, matter was neutral because it contained equal
quantities of both uids; if, however, friction separated the uids in a substance and left it
imbalanced, the substance would attract or repel other matter.

Invention of the Leyden jar

In 1745 a cheap and convenient source of electric sparks was invented by Pieter van
Musschenbroek, a physicist and mathematician in Leiden, Netherlands. Later called the
Leyden jar, it was the rst device that could store large amounts of electric charge. (E. Georg
von Kleist, a German cleric, independently developed the idea for such a device but did not
investigate it as thoroughly as Musschenbroek did.) The Leyden jar devised by the latter

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consisted of a glass vial that was partially lled with water and contained a thick conducting
wire capable of storing a substantial amount of charge. One end of this wire protruded
through the cork that sealed the opening of the vial. The Leyden jar was charged by bringing
this exposed end of the conducting wire into contact with a friction device that generated
static electricity.

Within a year after the appearance of Musschenbroek’s device, William Watson, an English
physician and scientist, constructed a more-sophisticated version of the Leyden jar; he
coated the inside and outside of the container with metal foil to improve its capacity to store
charge. Watson transmitted an electric spark from his device through a wire strung across
the River Thames at Westminster Bridge in 1747.

The Leyden jar revolutionized the study of electrostatics. Soon “electricians” were earning
their living all over Europe demonstrating electricity with Leyden jars. Typically, they killed
birds and animals with electric shock or sent charges through wires over rivers and lakes. In
1746 the abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet, a physicist who popularized science in France, discharged
a Leyden jar in front of King Louis XV by sending current through a chain of 180 Royal Guards.
In another demonstration, Nollet used wire made of iron to connect a row of Carthusian
monks more than a kilometre long; when a Leyden jar was discharged, the white-robed
monks reportedly leapt simultaneously into the air.

In America, Benjamin Franklin sold his printing house,

newspaper, and almanac to spend his time conducting
electricity experiments. In 1752 Franklin proved that
lightning was an example of electric conduction by ying
a silk kite during a thunderstorm. He collected electric
charge from a cloud by means of wet twine attached to a
key and thence to a Leyden jar. He then used the
accumulated charge from the lightning to perform
electric experiments. Franklin enunciated the law now
Leyden jar
known as the conservation of charge (the net sum of the
Experiment with a Leyden jar, undated
charges within an isolated region is always constant).
engraving.
Photos.com/Thinkstock Like Watson, he disagreed with DuFay’s two- uid theory.
Franklin argued that electricity consisted of two states of
one uid, which is present in everything. A substance containing an unusually large amount
of the uid would be “plus,” or positively charged. Matter with less than a normal amount of
uid would be “minus,” or negatively charged. Franklin’s one- uid theory, which dominated
the study of electricity for 100 years, is essentially correct because most currents are the

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result of moving electrons. At the same time, however, fundamental particles have both
negative and positive charges and, in this sense, DuFay’s two- uid picture is correct.

Joseph Priestley, an English physicist, summarized all

available data on electricity in his book History and
Present State of Electricity (1767). He repeated one of
Franklin’s experiments, in which the latter had dropped
small corks into a highly electri ed metal container and
found that they were neither attracted nor repelled. The
lack of any charge on the inside of the container caused
Priestley to recall Newton’s law that there is no
gravitational force on the inside of a hollow sphere. From
this, Priestley inferred that the law of force between
electric charges must be the same as the law for
gravitational force—i.e., that the force between masses
diminishes with the inverse square of the distance
between the masses. Although they were expressed in
Franklin, Benjamin
qualitative and descriptive terms, Priestley’s laws are still
Benjamin Franklin's experiment proving the
valid today. Their mathematics was clari ed and
identity of lightning and electricity.
developed extensively between 1767 and the mid-19th
© North Wind Picture Archives
century as electricity and magnetism became precise,
quantitative sciences.

Formulation of the quantitative laws of

electrostatics and magnetostatics

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb established electricity as a

mathematical science during the latter half of the 18th
century. He transformed Priestley’s descriptive
observations into the basic quantitative laws of
electrostatics and magnetostatics. He also developed the
mathematical theory of electric force and invented the
torsion balance that was to be used in electricity
experiments for the next 100 years. Coulomb used the
balance to measure the force between magnetic poles
and between electric charges at varying distances. In
Priestley, Joseph: electricity generation
and storage 1785 he announced his quantitative proof that electric
and magnetic forces vary, like gravitation, inversely as the
Apparatus designed by Joseph Priestley for
the generation and storage of electricity,
square of the distance (see above Fundamentals). Thus,

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from an engraving by Andrew Bell for the according to Coulomb’s law, if the distance between two
first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
charged masses is doubled, the electric force between
(1768–71). By means of a wheel connected
by string to a pulley, the machine rotated a
them is reduced to a fourth. (The English physicist Henry
glass globe against a “rubber,” which Cavendish, as well as John Robison of Scotland, had
consisted of a hollow piece of copper filled made quantitative determinations of this principle
with horsehair. The resultant charge of static
before Coulomb, but they had not published their work.)
electricity, accumulating on the surface of
the globe, was collected by a cluster of wires
(m) and conducted by brass wire or rod (l) to The mathematicians Siméon-Denis Poisson of France
a “prime conductor” (k), a hollow vessel and Carl Friedrich Gauss of Germany extended
made of polished copper. Metallic rods could Coulomb’s work during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
be inserted into holes in the conductor “to
Poisson’s equation (published in 1813) and the law of
convey the fire where-ever it is wanted.”
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
charge conservation contain in two lines virtually all the
laws of electrostatics. The theory of magnetostatics,
which is the study of steady-state magnetic elds, also was developed from Coulomb’s law.
Magnetostatics uses the concept of a magnetic potential analogous to the electric potential
(i.e., magnetic poles are postulated with properties analogous to electric charges).

Michael Faraday built upon Priestley’s work and conducted an experiment that veri ed quite
accurately the inverse square law. Faraday’s experiment involving the use of a metal ice pail
and a gold-leaf electroscope was the rst precise quantitative experiment on electric charge.
In Faraday’s time, the gold-leaf electroscope was used to indicate the electric state of a body.
This type of apparatus consists of two thin leaves of gold hanging from an insulated metal
rod that is mounted inside a metal box. When the rod is charged, the leaves repel each other
and the de ection indicates the size of the charge. Faraday began his experiment by
charging a metal ball suspended on an insulating silk thread. He then connected the gold-
leaf electroscope to a metal ice pail resting on an insulating block and lowered the charged
ball into the pail. The electroscope reading increased as the ball was lowered into the pail and
reached a steady value once the ball was within the pail. When the ball was withdrawn
without touching the pail, the electroscope reading fell to zero. Yet when the ball touched
the bottom of the pail, the reading remained at its steady value. On removal the ball was
found to be completely discharged. Faraday concluded that the electric charge produced on
the outside of the pail, when the ball was inside but not in contact with it, was exactly equal
to the initial charge on the ball. He then inserted into the pail other objects, such as a set of
concentric pails separated from one another with various insulating materials like sulfur. In
each case, the electroscope reading was the same once the ball was completely within the
pail. From this Faraday concluded that the total charge of the system was an invariable
quantity equal to the initial charge of the ball. The present-day belief that conservation is a
fundamental property of charge rests not only on the experiments of Franklin and Faraday
but also on its complete agreement with all observations in electric engineering, quantum

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electrodynamics, and experimental electricity. With Faraday’s work, the theory of

electrostatics was complete.

Foundations of electrochemistry and

electrodynamics

Development of the battery

The invention of the battery in 1800 made possible for
the rst time major advances in the theories of electric
current and electrochemistry. Both science and
technology developed rapidly as a direct result, leading

Faraday, Michael
some to call the 19th century the age of electricity.

Michael Faraday lecturing on electricity and

The development of the battery was the accidental result
magnetism, Royal Institution, London,
January 23, 1846.
of biological experiments conducted by Luigi Galvani.
© Photos.com/Thinkstock Galvani, a professor of anatomy at the Bologna Academy
of Science, was interested in electricity in sh and other
animals. One day he noticed that electric sparks from an electrostatic machine caused
muscular contractions in a dissected frog that lay nearby. At rst Galvani assumed that the
phenomenon was the result of atmospheric electricity because similar effects could be
observed during lightning storms. Later he discovered that whenever a piece of metal
connected the muscle and nerve of the frog, the muscle contracted. Although Galvani
realized that some metals appeared to be more effective than others in producing this effect,
he concluded incorrectly that the metal was transporting a uid, which he identi ed with
animal electricity, from the nerve to the muscle. Galvani’s observations, published in 1791,
aroused considerable controversy and speculation.

Alessandro Volta, a physicist at the nearby University of Pavia, had been studying how
electricity stimulates the senses of touch, taste, and sight. When Volta put a metal coin on
top of his tongue and another coin of a different metal under his tongue and connected their
surfaces with a wire, the coins tasted salty. Like Galvani, Volta assumed that he was working
with animal electricity until 1796 when he discovered that he could also produce a current
when he substituted a piece of cardboard soaked in brine for his tongue. Volta correctly
conjectured that the effect was caused by the contact between metal and a moist body.
Around 1800 he constructed what is now known as a voltaic pile consisting of layers of silver,
moist cardboard, and zinc, repeated in that order, beginning and ending with a different
metal. When he joined the silver and the zinc with a wire, electricity owed continuously
through the wire. Volta con rmed that the effects of his pile were equivalent in every way to
those of static electricity. Within 20 years, galvanism, as electricity produced by a chemical

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reaction was then called, became unequivocally linked to static electricity. More important,
Volta’s invention provided the rst source of continuous electric current. This rudimentary
form of battery produced a smaller voltage than the Leyden jar, but it was easier to use
because it could supply a steady current and did not have to be recharged.

The controversy between Galvani, who mistakenly

thought that electricity originated in the animal’s nerve,
and Volta, who realized that it came from the metal, had
divided scientists into two camps. Galvani was supported
by Alexander von Humboldt in Germany, while Volta was
backed by Coulomb and other French physicists.

Within six weeks of Volta’s report, two English scientists,

William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle, used a chemical
battery to discover electrolysis (the process in which an
electric current produces a chemical reaction) and
initiate the science of electrochemistry. In their
experiment the two employed a voltaic pile to liberate
Volta, Alessandro: wet pile
hydrogen and oxygen from water. They attached each
Illustration from “On the Electricity Excited end of the pile to brass wires and placed the opposite
by the Mere Contact of Conducting
ends of the wires into salt water. The salt made the water
Substances of Different Kinds,” Alessandro
Volta's paper announcing his invention of the
a conductor. Hydrogen gas accumulated at the end of
wet pile in the Philosophical Transactions of one wire; the end of the other wire was oxidized.
the Royal Society, 1800. Nicholson and Carlisle discovered that the amount of
© Photos.com/Thinkstock
hydrogen and oxygen set free by the current was
proportional to the amount of current used. By 1809 the
English chemist Humphry Davy had used a stronger battery to free for the rst time several
very active metals—sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, barium, and magnesium—from
their liquid compounds. Faraday, who was Davy’s assistant at the time, studied electrolysis
quantitatively and showed that the amount of energy needed to separate a gram of a
substance from its compound is closely related to the atomic weight of the substance.
Electrolysis became a method of measuring electric current, and the quantity of charge that
releases a gram atomic weight of a simple element is now called a faraday in his honour.

Once scientists were able to produce currents with a battery, they could study the ow of
electricity quantitatively. Because of the battery, the German physicist Georg Simon Ohm
was able experimentally in 1827 to quantify precisely a problem that Cavendish could only
investigate qualitatively some 50 years earlier—namely, the ability of a material to conduct
electricity. The result of this work—Ohm’s law—explains how the resistance to the ow of

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charge depends on the type of conductor and on its length and diameter. According to
Ohm’s formulation, the current ow through a conductor is directly proportional to the
potential difference, or voltage, and inversely proportional to the resistance—that is, i = V/R.
Thus, doubling the length of an electric wire doubles its resistance, while doubling the cross-
sectional area of the wire reduces the resistance by a half. Ohm’s law is probably the most
widely used equation in electric design.

Experimental and theoretical studies of electromagnetic

phenomena

One of the great turning points in the development of the physical sciences was Hans
Christian Ørsted’s announcement in 1820 that electric currents produce magnetic effects.
(Ørsted made his discovery while lecturing to a class of physics students. He placed by
chance a wire carrying current near a compass needle and was surprised to see the needle
swing at right angles to the wire.) Ørsted’s fortuitous discovery proved that electricity and
magnetism are linked. His nding, together with Faraday’s subsequent discovery that a
changing magnetic eld produces an electric current in a nearby circuit, formed the basis of
both James Clerk Maxwell’s uni ed theory of electromagnetism and most of modern
electrotechnology.

Once Ørsted’s experiment had revealed that electric currents have magnetic effects,
scientists realized that there must be magnetic forces between the currents. They began
studying the forces immediately. A French physicist, François Arago, observed in 1820 that an
electric current will orient unmagnetized iron lings in a circle around the wire. That same
year, another French physicist, André-Marie Ampère, developed Ørsted’s observations in
quantitative terms. Ampère showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract
and repel each other like magnets. If the currents ow in the same direction, the wires attract
each other; if they ow in opposite directions, the wires repel each other. From this
experiment, Ampère was able to express the right-hand rule for the direction of the force on
a current in a magnetic eld. He also established experimentally and quantitatively the laws
of magnetic force between electric currents. He suggested that internal electric currents are
responsible for permanent magnets and for highly magnetizable materials like iron. With
Arago he demonstrated that steel needles become more strongly magnetic inside a coil
carrying an electric current. Experiments on small coils showed that, at large distances, the
forces between two such coils are similar to those between two small bar magnets and,
moreover, that one coil can be replaced by a bar magnet of suitable size without changing
the forces. The magnetic moment of this equivalent magnet was determined by the
dimensions of the coil, its number of turns, and the current owing around it.

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William Sturgeon of England and Joseph Henry of the United States used Ørsted’s discovery
to develop electromagnets during the 1820s. Sturgeon wrapped 18 turns of bare copper wire
around a U-shaped iron bar. When he turned on the current, the bar became an
electromagnet capable of lifting 20 times its weight. When the current was turned off, the
bar was no longer magnetized. Henry repeated Sturgeon’s work in 1829, using insulated wire
to prevent short-circuiting. Using hundreds of turns, Henry created an electromagnet that
could lift more than one ton of iron.

Ørsted’s experiment showing that electricity could produce

magnetic effects raised the opposite question as well: Could
magnetism induce an electric current in another circuit? The
French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel argued that since a
steel bar inside a metallic helix can be magnetized by passing
a current through the helix, the bar magnet in turn should
create a current in an enveloping helix. In the following decade
many ingenious experiments were devised, but the
expectation that a steady current would be induced in a coil
near the magnet resulted in experimenters either accidentally
missing or not appreciating any transient electric effects
caused by the magnet.

Joseph Henry.
Faraday’s discovery of electric induction
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Faraday, the greatest experimentalist in electricity and

magnetism of the 19th century and one of the greatest experimental physicists of all time,
worked on and off for 10 years trying to prove that a magnet could induce electricity. In 1831
he nally succeeded by using two coils of wire wound around opposite sides of a ring of soft
iron (Figure 7). The rst coil was attached to a battery; when a current passed through the
coil, the iron ring became magnetized. A wire from the second coil was extended to a
compass needle a metre away, far enough so that it was not affected directly by any current
in the rst circuit. When the rst circuit was turned on, Faraday observed a momentary
de ection of the compass needle and its immediate return to its original position. When the
primary current was switched off, a similar de ection of the compass needle occurred but in
the opposite direction. Building on this observation in other experiments, Faraday showed
that changes in the magnetic eld around the rst coil are responsible for inducing the
current in the second coil. He also demonstrated that an electric current can be induced by
moving a magnet, by turning an electromagnet on and off, and even by moving an electric
wire in Earth’s magnetic eld. Within a few months, Faraday built the rst, albeit primitive,
electric generator.

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Henry had discovered electric induction quite

independently in 1830, but his results were not published
until after he had received news of Faraday’s 1831 work,
nor did he develop the discovery as fully as Faraday. In
his paper of July 1832, Henry reported and correctly
interpreted self-induction. He had produced large
Figure 7: Faraday's magnetic induction
experiment. When the switch S is closed in
electric arcs from a long helical conductor when it was
the primary circuit, a momentary current disconnected from a battery. When he had opened the
flows in the secondary circuit, giving a circuit, the rapid decrease in the current had caused a
transient deflection of the compass needle
large voltage between the battery terminal and the wire.
M.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
As the wire lead was pulled away from the battery, the
current continued to ow for a short time in the form of a
bright arc between the battery terminal and the wire.

Faraday’s thinking was permeated by the concept of electric and magnetic lines of force. He
visualized that magnets, electric charges, and electric currents produce lines of force. When
he placed a thin card covered with iron lings on a magnet, he could see the lings form
chains from one end of the magnet to the other. He believed that these lines showed the
directions of the forces and that electric current would have the same lines of force. The
tension they build explains the attraction and repulsion of magnets and electric charges.
Faraday had visualized magnetic curves as early as 1831 while working on his induction
experiments; he wrote in his notes, “By magnetic curves I mean lines of magnetic forces
which would be depicted by iron lings.” Faraday opposed the prevailing idea that induction
occurred “at a distance”; instead, he held that induction occurs along curved lines of force
because of the action of contiguous particles. Later he explained that electricity and
magnetism are transmitted through a medium that is the site of electric or magnetic “ elds,”
which make all substances magnetic to some extent.

Faraday was not the only researcher laying the groundwork for a synthesis between
electricity, magnetism, and other areas of physics. On the continent of Europe, primarily in
Germany, scientists were making mathematical connections between electricity,
magnetism, and optics. The work of the physicists Franz Ernst Neumann, Wilhelm Eduard
Weber, and H.F.E. Lenz belongs to this period. At the same time, Helmholtz and the English
physicists William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and James Prescott Joule were clarifying the
relationship between electricity and other forms of energy. Joule investigated the
quantitative relationship between electric currents and heat during the 1840s and
formulated the theory of the heating effects that accompany the ow of electricity in
conductors. Helmholtz, Thomson, Henry, Gustav Kirchhoff, and Sir George Gabriel Stokes also
extended the theory of the conduction and propagation of electric effects in conductors. In

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1856 Weber and his German colleague, Rudolf Kohlrausch, determined the ratio of electric
and magnetic units and found that it has the same dimensions as light and that it is almost
exactly equal to its velocity. In 1857 Kirchhoff used this nding to demonstrate that electric
disturbances propagate on a highly conductive wire with the speed of light.

Maxwell’s uni ed theory of electromagnetism

The nal steps in synthesizing electricity and magnetism into one coherent theory were
made by Maxwell. He was deeply in uenced by Faraday’s work, having begun his study of the
phenomena by translating Faraday’s experimental ndings into mathematics. (Faraday was
self-taught and had never mastered mathematics.) In 1856 Maxwell developed the theory
that the energy of the electromagnetic eld is in the space around the conductors as well as
in the conductors themselves. By 1864 he had formulated his own electromagnetic theory of
light, predicting that both light and radio waves are electric and magnetic phenomena.
While Faraday had discovered that changes in magnetic elds produce electric elds,
Maxwell added the converse: changes in electric elds produce magnetic elds even in the
absence of electric currents. Maxwell predicted that electromagnetic disturbances traveling
through empty space have electric and magnetic elds at right angles to each other and
that both elds are perpendicular to the direction of the wave. He concluded that the waves
move at a uniform speed equal to the speed of light and that light is one form of
electromagnetic wave. Their elegance notwithstanding, Maxwell’s radical ideas were
accepted by few outside England until 1886, when the German physicist Heinrich Hertz
veri ed the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light; the waves he
discovered are known now as radio waves.

Maxwell’s four eld equations represent the pinnacle of classical electromagnetic theory.
Subsequent developments in the theory have been concerned either with the relationship
between electromagnetism and the atomic structure of matter or with the practical and
theoretical consequences of Maxwell’s equations. His formulation has withstood the
revolutions of relativity and quantum mechanics. His equations are appropriate for distances
−10
as small as 10 centimetres—100 times smaller than the size of an atom. The fusion of
electromagnetic theory and quantum theory, known as quantum electrodynamics, is
required only for smaller distances.

While the mainstream of theoretical activity concerning electric and magnetic phenomena
during the 19th century was devoted to showing how they are interrelated, some scientists
made use of them to discover new properties of materials and heat. Weber developed
Ampère’s suggestion that there are internal circulating currents of molecular size in metals.
He explained how a substance loses its magnetic properties when the molecular magnets

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point in random directions. Under the action of an external force, they may turn to point in
the direction of the force; when all point in this direction, the maximum possible degree of
magnetization is reached, a phenomenon known as magnetic saturation. In 1895 Pierre Curie
of France discovered that a ferromagnetic substance has a speci c temperature above which
it ceases to be magnetic. Finally, superconductivity was discovered in 1900 by the German
physicist Heike Kammerlingh-Onnes. In superconductivity, electric conductors lose all
resistance at very low temperatures.

Discovery of the electron and its rami cations

Although little of major importance was added to electromagnetic theory in the 19th century
after Maxwell, the discovery of the electron in 1898 opened up an entirely new area of study:
the nature of electric charge and of matter itself. The discovery of the electron grew out of
studies of electric currents in vacuum tubes. Heinrich Geissler, a glassblower who assisted
the German physicist Julius Plücker, improved the vacuum tube in 1854. Four years later,
Plücker sealed two electrodes inside the tube, evacuated the air, and forced electric currents
between the electrodes; he attributed the green glow that appeared on the wall of the tube
to rays emanating from the cathode. From then until the end of the century, the properties
of cathode-ray discharges were studied intensively. The work of the English physicist Sir
William Crookes in 1879 indicated that the luminescence was a property of the electric
current itself. Crookes concluded that the rays were composed of electri ed charged
particles. In 1898 another English physicist, Sir J.J. Thomson, identi ed a cathode ray as a
1
stream of negatively charged particles, each having a mass / smaller than that of a
1836
hydrogen ion. Thomson’s discovery established the particulate nature of charge; his particles
were later dubbed electrons.

Following the discovery of the electron, electromagnetic

theory became an integral part of the theories of the
atomic, subatomic, and subnuclear structure of matter.
This shift in focus occurred as the result of an impasse
between electromagnetic theory and statistical
mechanics over attempts to understand radiation from
hot bodies. Thermal radiation had been investigated in
Germany by the physicist Wilhelm Wien between 1890
cathode ray
and 1900. Wien had virtually exhausted the resources of
Cathode rays casting a shadow of a Maltese
thermodynamics in dealing with this problem. Two
cross in a Crookes tube, powered by a
British scientists, Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) and
Ruhmkorff coil.
Alchaemist Sir James Hopwood Jeans, had by 1900 applied the
newly developed science of statistical mechanics to the

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same problem. They obtained results that, though in agreement with Wien’s
thermodynamic conclusions (as distinct from his speculative extensions of
thermodynamics), only partially agreed with experimental observations. The German
physicist Max Planck attempted to combine the statistical approach with a thermodynamic
approach. By concentrating on the necessity of tting together the experimental data, he
was led to the formulation of an empirical law that satis ed Wien’s thermodynamic criteria
and accommodated the experimental data. When Planck interpreted this law in terms of
Rayleigh’s statistical concepts, he concluded that radiation of frequency ν exists only in
quanta of energy. Planck’s result, including the introduction of the new universal constant h
in 1900, marked the foundation of quantum mechanics and initiated a profound change in
physical theory (see atom: Bohr’s shell model).

By 1900 it was apparent that Thomson’s electrons were a universal constituent of matter and,
thus, that matter is essentially electric in nature. As a result, in the early years of the 20th
century, many physicists attempted to construct theories of the electromagnetic properties
of metals, insulators, and magnetic materials in terms of electrons. In 1909 the Dutch
physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz succeeded in doing so in The Theory of Electrons and Its
Applications to the Phenomena of Light and Radiant Heat; his work has since been
modi ed by quantum theory.

Special theory of relativity

The other major conceptual advance in electromagnetic theory was the special theory of
relativity. In Maxwell’s time, a mechanistic view of the universe held sway. Sound was
interpreted as an undulatory motion of the air, while light and other electromagnetic waves
were regarded as undulatory motions of an intangible medium called ether. The question
arose as to whether the velocity of light measured by an observer moving relative to ether
would be affected by his motion. Albert Abraham Michelson and Edward W. Morley of the
United States had demonstrated in 1887 that light in a vacuum on Earth travels at a constant
speed which is independent of the direction of the light relative to the direction of Earth’s
motion through the ether. Lorentz and Henri Poincaré, a French physicist, showed between
1900 and 1904 that the conclusions of Michelson and Morley were consistent with Maxwell’s
equations. On this basis, Lorentz and Poincaré developed a theory of relativity in which the
absolute motion of a body relative to a hypothetical ether is no longer signi cant. Poincaré
named the theory the principle of relativity in a lecture at the St. Louis Exposition in
September 1904. Planck gave the rst formulation of relativistic dynamics two years later. The
most general formulation of the special theory of relativity, however, was put forth by
Einstein in 1905, and the theory of relativity is usually associated with his name. Einstein
postulated that the speed of light is a constant, independent of the motion of the source of

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the light, and showed how the Newtonian laws of mechanics would have to be modi ed.
While Maxwell had synthesized electricity and magnetism into one theory, he had regarded
them as essentially two interdependent phenomena; Einstein showed that they are two
aspects of the same phenomenon.

Maxwell’s equations, the special theory of relativity, the discovery of the electronic structure
of matter, and the formulation of quantum mechanics all occurred before 1930. The quantum
electrodynamics theory, developed between 1945 and 1955, subsequently resolved some
minute discrepancies in the calculations of certain atomic properties. For example, the
accuracy with which it is now possible to calculate one of the numbers describing the
magnetic moment of the electron is comparable to measuring the distance between New
York City and Los Angeles to within the thickness of a human hair. As a result, quantum
electrodynamics is the most complete and precise theory of any physical phenomenon. The
remarkable correspondence between theory and observation makes it unique among
human endeavours.

Development of electromagnetic technology

Electromagnetic technology began with Faraday’s discovery of induction in 1831 (see above).
His demonstration that a changing magnetic eld induces an electric current in a nearby
circuit showed that mechanical energy can be converted to electric energy. It provided the
foundation for electric power generation, leading directly to the invention of the dynamo and
the electric motor. Faraday’s nding also proved crucial for lighting and heating systems.

The early electric industry was dominated by the problem of generating electricity on a large
scale. Within a year of Faraday’s discovery, a small hand-turned generator in which a magnet
revolved around coils was demonstrated in Paris. In 1833 there appeared an English model
that featured the modern arrangement of rotating the coils in the eld of a xed magnet. By
1850 generators were manufactured commercially in several countries. Permanent magnets
were used to produce the magnetic eld in generators until the principle of the self-excited
generator was discovered in 1866. (A self-excited generator has stronger magnetic elds
because it uses electromagnets powered by the generator itself.) In 1870 Zénobe Théophile
Gramme, a Belgian manufacturer, built the rst practical generator capable of producing a
continuous current. It was soon found that the magnetic eld is more effective if the coil
windings are embedded in slots in the rotating iron armature. The slotted armature, still in
use today, was invented in 1880 by the Swedish engineer Jonas Wenström. Faraday’s 1831
discovery of the principle of the alternating-current (AC) transformer was not put to practical
use until the late 1880s when the heated debate over the merits of direct-current and
alternating-current systems for power transmission was settled in favour of the latter.

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At rst, the only serious consideration for electric power was arc lighting, in which a brilliant
light is emitted by an electric spark between two electrodes. The arc lamp was too powerful
for domestic use, however, and so it was limited to large installations like lighthouses, train
stations, and department stores. Commercial development of an incandescent lament
lamp, rst invented in the 1840s, was delayed until a lament could be made that would heat
to incandescence without melting and until a satisfactory vacuum tube could be built. The
mercury pump, invented in 1865, provided an adequate vacuum, and a satisfactory carbon
lament was developed independently by the English physicist Sir Joseph Wilson Swan and
the American inventor Thomas Edison during the late 1870s. By 1880 both had applied for
patents for their incandescent lamps, and the ensuing litigation between the two men was
resolved by the formation of a joint company in 1883. Thanks to the incandescent lamp,
electric lighting became an accepted part of urban life by 1900. The tungsten lament lamp,
introduced during the early 1900s, was long the principal form of electric lamp, though it was
supplanted by more ef cient uorescent gas discharge lamps and light-emitting diodes
(LEDs).

Electricity took on a new importance with the development of the electric motor. This
machine, which converts electric energy to mechanical energy, has become an integral
component of a wide assortment of devices ranging from kitchen appliances and of ce
equipment to industrial robots and rapid-transit vehicles. Although the principle of the
electric motor was devised by Faraday in 1821, no commercially signi cant unit was produced
until 1873. In fact, the rst important AC motor, built by the Serbian-American inventor Nikola
Tesla, was not demonstrated in the United States until 1888. Tesla began producing his
motors in association with the Westinghouse Electric Company a few years after DC motors
had been installed in trains in Germany and Ireland. By the end of the 19th century, the
electric motor had taken a recognizably modern form. Subsequent improvements have
rarely involved radically new ideas. However, the introduction of better designs and new
bearing, armature, magnetic, and contact materials has resulted in the manufacture of
smaller, cheaper, and more ef cient and reliable motors.

The modern communications industry is among the most spectacular products of electricity.
Telegraph systems using wires and simple electrochemical or electromechanical receivers
proliferated in western Europe and the United States during the 1840s. An operable cable
was installed under the English Channel in 1865, and a pair of transatlantic cables were
successfully laid a year later. By 1872 almost all of the major cities of the world were linked by
telegraph.

Alexander Graham Bell patented the rst practical telephone in the United States in 1876,
and the rst public telephone services were operating within a few years. In 1895 the British

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physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford advanced Hertz’s

scienti c investigations of radio waves and transmitted
radio signals for more than one kilometre. Guglielmo
Marconi, an Italian physicist and inventor, established
wireless communications across the Atlantic employing
radio waves of approximately 300- to 3,000-metre
wavelength in 1901. Broadcast radio transmissions were
transatlantic telegraph cable established during the 1920s.
HMS Agamemnon in 1858 laying the first
transatlantic telegraph cable while a whale Telephone transmissions by radio waves, the electric
crosses the line, lithograph from a drawing recording and reproduction of sound, and television
by J. Dudley, 1865.
were made possible by the development of the triode
The Atlantic Telegraph by W.H. Russell,
1865. Ebook 40948/Project Gutenberg tube. This three-electrode tube, invented by the
American engineer Lee de Forest, permitted for the rst
time the ampli cation of electric signals. Known as the
Audion, this device played a pivotal role in the early
development of the electronics industry.

The rst telephone transmission via radio signals was

made from Arlington, Virginia, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris
in 1915, and a commercial radio telephone service
between New York City and London was begun in 1927.
Besides such efforts, most of the major developmental
work of this period was tied to the radio and phonograph
entertainment industries and the sound lm industry.
Rapid progress was made toward transmitting moving
pictures, especially in Great Britain; just before World War
II the British Broadcasting Corporation inaugurated the
Bell, Alexander Graham: telephone rst public television service. Today many regions of the

Alexander Graham Bell filing the patent for electromagnetic spectrum are used for communications,
his telephone at the United States Patent including microwaves in the frequency range of
Office on February 14, 1876, two hours 9
approximately 7 × 10 hertz for satellite communication
before declaration of a rival device by Elisha
14
Gray. Bell's telephone is on the table to the links and infrared light at a frequency of about 3 × 10
right. hertz for optical bre communications systems.
Photos.com/Thinkstock

Until 1939 the electronics industry was almost exclusively

concerned with communications and broadcast entertainment. Scientists and engineers in
Britain, Germany, France, and the United States did initiate research on radar systems
capable of aircraft detection and antiaircraft re control during the 1930s, however, and this

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marked the beginning of a new direction for electronics. During World War II and after, the
electronics industry made strides paralleled only by those of the chemical industry. Television
became commonplace, and a broad array of new devices and systems emerged, most
notably the electronic digital computer.

The electronic revolution of the last half of the 20th century was made possible in large part
by the invention of the transistor (1947) and such subsequent developments as the
integrated circuit. (For detailed coverage of these and other major advances, see electronics.)
This miniaturization and integration of circuit elements has led to a remarkable diminution
in the size and cost of electronic equipment and an equally impressive increase in its
reliability.

Frank Neville H. Robinson Edwin Kashy Sharon Bertsch McGrayne

CITATION INFORMATION
ARTICLE TITLE: Electromagnetism
WEBSITE NAME: Encyclopaedia Britannica
PUBLISHER: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
DATE PUBLISHED: 26 julio 2018
URL: https://www.britannica.com/science/electromagnetism
ACCESS DATE: abril 30, 2019

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