Abstract
In the following, we present an account of the experimental foundation of the classical theory of electromagnetism. It is not intended to be in historical order, but merely a short compilation of the essential empirical basis. Although electromagnetic interactions with matter are of great interest to physics and are of great practical importance, nevertheless they are not fundamental to the topic—after all electromagnetic fields do exist in complete vacuum. Therefore, in order to concentrate on the essential aspects, we will treat fields in vacuum in this chapter, except for the isolated conductors necessary to hold charges and currents. We will reserve our treatment of dielectric and magnetic materials for later chapters, where they can be discussed in detail. In this chapter we follow historical precedent by considering experiments performed in the steady state, i.e., static charges and stationary currents.
Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia, Querry 6
…it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics. Roger Bacon Opus Majus
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Bibliography
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© 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Westgard, J.B. (1997). Experimental Foundation. In: Electrodynamics: A Concise Introduction. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2356-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2356-6_2
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