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Re: Why Do We use B for the Magnetic Field?



I am certainly only one of MANY individuals who evidently aren't
completely meeting someone's expectation of this great gathering of
minds. Sometimes I get bogged down and just DELETE entire threads -
but I tend NOT to do this with Subject:(s) that strike my fancy.

I really DON'T remember this 'non-answer' from July 2000. (Summer
months in PARTICULAR are apt to get short shrift from me.

SO - bottom line - Maxwell used B for the Mag field because he had
already chosen A for the vector potential?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

(humor mode ON) I had always thought that Corson and Lorain had
invented the Vector Potential A
(humor mode OFF)

DID the Vector Potential REALLY precede the B field historically?????








At 12:08 PM -0700 4/30/01, Richard Hake, you wrote about Why Do We
use B for the Magnetic Field? - Twelve Posti:

In Larry's indicated reference,(1) Bauerlein writes:

"The symbols A, B, and H denote three prominent vector fields in
electromagnetism. The choice of those three letters appears to be an
alphabetical accident of history. . . . Maxwell . . .(ref. 2) . . .
introduces - with no explanation about usage - what we would write
today as B . . . "


REFERENCES
1. Ralph Bauerlein, "Answer to Question #73. S is for entropy, Q is
for charge," Am. J. Phys. 68(8), 691 (2000); online at
<http://ojps.aip.org/journal_cgi/dbt?KEY=AJPIAS>.

2. James Clerk Maxwell, "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism"
(Clarenden, Oxford, 1873).

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