Re: quantum of electric flux?

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 11:43 AM 3/9/00 -0500, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
> Quantization would imply a finite number of field lines.

I don't think it implies any such thing.  I wouldn't know where to start or
what steps to follow to arrive at such a conclusion.

> How many electric lines does an electron produce?

None, because there is no such thing as an electric line.

In fact, if such quantized electric field lines existed, it would imply all
sorts of absurd things.  For starters we agree that the flux through a
_closed_ surface just tells us the amount of charge inside, so that's
quantized.  In contrast, now consider the surface bounded by a loop.  The
flux through that loop (i.e. through that surface) is not quantized.  If
field lines existed, there would be a quantized number of them through the
loop, contrary to experiment and theory.

Another, more elegant argument:  the field near a single isolated point
charge is very highly symmetric.  For one thing, it is invariant under
small rotations.  If there were a finite number of field lines, they would
break this symmetry.

<additional arguments skipped>

BTW there's no such thing as magnetic field lines either, for analogous
reasons.