An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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فرهنگ ریشه شناختی اخترشناسی-اخترفیزیک

M. Heydari-Malayeri    -    Paris Observatory

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Number of Results: 1 Search : Newton-Maxwell incompatibility
Newton-Maxwell incompatibility
  ناسازگاری ِ نیوتن-ماکسول   
nâsâzgâri-ye Newton-Maxwell

Fr.: incompatibilité entre Newton et Maxwell   

The incompatibility between → Galilean relativity and Mawxell's theory of → electromagnetism. Maxwell demonstrated that electrical and magnetic fields propagate as waves in space. The propagation speed of these waves in a vacuum is given by the expression c = (ε00)-0.5, where ε0 is the electric → permittivity and μ0 is the magnetic → permeability, both → physical constants. Maxwell noticed that this value corresponds exactly to the → speed of light in vacuum. This implies, however, that the speed of light must also be a universal constant, just as are the electrical and the magnetic field constants! The problem is that → Maxwell's equations do not relate this velocity to an absolute background and specify no → reference frame against which it is measured. If we accept that the principle of relativity not only applies to mechanics, then it must also be true that Maxwell's equations apply in any → inertial frame, with the same values for the universal constants. Therefore, the speed of light should be independent of the movement of its source. This, however, contradicts the vector addition of velocities, which is a verified principle within → Newtonian mechanics. Einstein was bold enough to conclude that the principle of Newtonian relativity and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism are incompatible! In other words, the → Galilean transformation and the → Newtonian relativity principle based on this transformation were wrong. There exists, therefore, a new relativity principle, → Einsteinian relativity, for both mechanics and electrodynamics that is based on the → Lorentz transformation.

Newton; → Maxwell; → incompatibility.