Re: magnetic field of a long straight wire

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

Bob LaMontagne wrote:

> (I guess
> I'm looking for a good clear definition of the wedge product).

Given vectors A, and B, the wedge product A /\ B can
be visualized as the parallelogram having A on one
edge and B on the other edge, with the sense of
circulation given by "A, then B".

> Perhaps if we had concrete examples of wedge products between a variety
> of 3 dimensional vectors we could see why there is no handedness

Given that definition you should be able to construct
all the concrete examples you want.  A card with
circulation marked on it is chiral if and ONLY if
one face is distinguishable from the other face.  If
the card is "transparent" so that markings on one face
show up on the other face, the card is not chiral.  For
details see
  http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/physics/pierre-puzzle.htm


> Cross products and wedge products both give the correct results, but
> neither gives insight into the actual physics.

Neither?

Does that mean that equations never give insight into
the physics of electromagnetism?

If cross products are no good and wedge products are
no good, do you have anything better to offer?  Or
should we all just give up and go home?