From: "JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 20:32:51 -0600 (CST)
Hi all-
There seems to be a misconception that E and B fields transform
into each other under Lorentz transformations; at least that's how I
understand Bill Larson's remark:
*************************************************************
==>Or are E and B an historical fluke?
Only a society that developed routine relativistic travel before they
discovered simple magnets and static electricity would think so.
Bill Larson
Geneva
***********************************
Although E and B fields are "mixed" by L-transformations, just
as time and space are mixed, a pure E-field does not transform into a
pure B-field nor vice-versa. A field may be either E-like or B-like,
or a mixture of the two.
The E-field has electic charge as its source. The B-field has
magnetic charge as its source (although magnetic monopoles may be
"confined"). There is no L-transformation that mixes magnetic and
electric charge. Therefore magnetism and electricity are fundamentally
diffferent phenomena.
Maxwell created the first "unified field theory" when he found
a "unification" between electricity and magnetism. We now express the
unification by creating a 4-vector potential A_mu that "contains" both
electricity and magnetism.
Regards,
Jack