Re: [Phys-l] teaching energy

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 10/02/2006 02:09 PM, Rauber, Joel wrote:

> OTOH, I'm curious if you (John D.  Or others) are familiar with the
> Feynman/Wheeler paper from the 40's (I think), where they (as I
> understand it, and I've never directly read the paper just have seen
> some reference to it from time to time) build a consistant
> "action-at-a-distance" theory of electro-magnetism, i.e. without fields.
...
> Anybody on the list know what I'm referring to?

It's officially called Wheeler/Feynman absorber theory.
A good place to start is Feynman volume II chapter 28.

The gory details are in Feynman's thesis, and also in:
  http://prola.aps.org/abstract/RMP/v17/i2-3/p157_1
  http://prola.aps.org/abstract/RMP/v21/i3/p425_1
   full text free for all at http://prola.aps.org/pdf/RMP/v21/i3/p425_1
   (a good read)

The following will find follow-up discussions:
  http://www.google.com/search?q=wheeler+feynman+half-advanced
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=wheeler+feynman+half-advanced

> I assume at the sacrifice of local conservation of energy??

Yes, it is unabashedly nonlocal.  It is action at a distance.
(Energy is conserved, just not via a local mechanism.)