Related papers: When negative is not "less than zero": Electric ch…
Mathematics is the language of science. Fluent and productive use of mathematics requires one to understand the meaning embodied in mathematical symbols, operators, syntax, etc., which can be a difficult task. For instance, in algebraic…
Mathematical reasoning skills are a desired outcome of many introductory physics courses, particularly calculus-based physics courses. Positive and negative quantities are ubiquitous in physics, and the sign carries important and varied…
The present technical notes offer a brief summary of the essential points of electromagnetism at the undergraduate physics level. Some problems are presented at the end of each section; those with solutions are marked with an asterisk.
The article focuses on the issue of the two definitions of charge, mainly the gauge charge and the effective charge of fundamental particles. Most textbooks on classical electromagnetism and quantum field theory only works with the gauge…
Expressing physics problems in the form of a mathematical model is one of the most important stages in the problem-solving process. Particularly in algebraic symbolization, understanding the meanings of signs and being able to manipulate…
A case of non-minimal couplings between gravity and electromagnetic fields is presented. The field equations are worked out in the language of exterior differential forms. An exact charge screening class of solutions is given with a…
The concept of electromotive force (emf) may be introduced in various ways in an undergraduate course of theoretical electromagnetism. The multitude of alternate expressions for the emf is often the source of confusion to the student. We…
Starting from a weak gauge principle we give a new and critical revision of the argument leading to charge quantization on arbitrary spacetimes. The main differences of our approach with respect to previous works appear on spacetimes with…
The estimation of the electric field in simple situations provides an opportunity to develop intuition about the models used in physics. We propose an activity aimed at university students of General Physics where the electric field of a…
Does gravity care about electric charge? Precision tests of the weak equivalence principle achieve remarkable sensitivity but deliberately minimize electric charge on test masses, leaving this fundamental question experimentally open. We…
Electromagnetism, being much less intuitive than mechanics, where a lot of sources of misconceptions have been documented, has in addition to the common sources of misconceptions borrowed from mechanics other sources related to the abstract…
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to Electromagnetic Theory. The foundations of electrodynamics starting from the nature of electrical force up to the level of Maxwell equations solutions are presented. It starts with…
It is well-known (at least in the education research literature) that primary school students face considerable difficulties in the understanding of negative integers (and numbers), related operations and their visualizations. In the…
Experimentally it has been known for a long time that the electric charges of the observed particles appear to be quantized. An approach to understanding electric charge quantization that can be used for gauge theories with explicit $U(1)$…
Formally investigating the sources of students' difficulties around specific subjects is crucial for developing appropriate strategies to help students. We have been studying difficulties in understanding magnetism encountered by students…
Traditionally, Electromagnetism is taught following the chronological development of the matter. The final product of this path is a presentation of Electromagnetism realized by adding one layer over another with the risk of transferring…
The paper offers the full action for an electromagnetic field with electrical and magnetic charges; Feynman laws are formulated for the calculation of the interaction cross-sections for electrically and magnetically charged particles on the…
Suggested non-linear, non-gauge modification of the Maxwell theory of electromagnetism based on correlation between electromagnetic potential, $A_a$, and metric, $g_{ab}$, such that tensor $G_{ab} = g_{ab} - l^2{A}_a{A}_b$ represents…
Charge, like mass in Newtonian mechanics, is an irreducible element of electromagnetic theory that must be introduced ab initio. Its origin is not properly a part of the theory. Fields are then defined in terms of forces on either…
It is demonstrated, owing to the nonlinearity of QED, that a static charge placed in a strong magnetic field\ $B$\ is a magnetic dipole (besides remaining an electric monopole, as well). Its magnetic moment grows linearly with $B$ as long…