© meemoe_ukMagnets are strange, so I've got a new idea
Introduction
My recent discovery of the application of electric theory to cosmology has caused me to re-evaluate a lot of my science understanding. While it was a lot of fun to discover how well electric theory explains the cosmos, I was also learning a few things I didn't know about electric theory.
Which prompted me to think : " I don't fully understand this theory being used model the cosmos. I should learn more about it before I try to model the cosmos "
The core of this electric theory I thought I ought to better understand is expressed in the so-called Maxwell's equations.
Actually the equations we today attribute to Maxwell were invented by Oliver Heaviside as a vast improvement over Maxwell's original equations. Maxwell's original equations were mathematically clumsy and long winded. But Oliver was annoyed by the science and maths establishment of his time and criticized them a lot. Their response was to shun him out the community in every way they could, including not putting his name to these equations ( and others! the Lorentz force should be called the Heaviside force ) with the excuse that it was Maxwell that 1st got the underlying physics right. But really Heaviside's invention of the modern equations using modern mathematics may well have required a better understanding of the underlying physics than Mawell needed to write down the original equations. Certainly, Heavisides equations are far easier to use and understand.
But, even with Heaviside's equations comparatively easy to understand, how many of us really understand them?
It strikes me understanding the equations is like understanding chess. Understanding the basics rules of chess is relatively easy compared to being able to apply them correctly to win.
After studying Maxwell's equations as part of my science degree, I still didn't feel I understood them. Particularly...
Magnetic fields.
I was in college when I 1st saw an experiment to clearly demonstrate what a magnetic field can do to the motion of electrons. It pushes them at right angles to their velocity and the magnetic field. My teacher poked a magnet near a cathode ray. I expected the ray to pushed away or pulled towards the magnet, but it did neither, it was deflected at right angles to the magnet and their initial direction.
To this day, this is the most counter intuitive, inexplicable behavior within classical physics I have ever seen.
We studied the mathematical dynamic description of magnetic fields and their interaction with electric currents, but I still didn't understand why the electric current is deflected at right angles to its velocity and the magnetic field. It had no analogy in Newtonian mechanics, where if you push a free object, it moves away from your push.
Magnetic interaction between charged particles defies newtons 3rd law. " When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to that of the first body."
Later in my education I heard that relativity theory applied to electric theory explained magnetic fields. When I looked into this I found a few insightful and elegant ideas, such as that fast moving electrons perceive stationary protons to be length contracted, therefore higher proton densities are perceived and an extra attractive force is felt. However when it came to careful analysis of this idea, it has flaws which academics are still in debate over. For a start, the current in a copper wire expounds a magnetic field, but the drift current is far too slow to cause relativistic effects, and the Fermi velocity of the electrons has a random direction as they crashes around the copper atoms. Rigorous analysis of this is beyound the scope of an undergraduate degree. When I looked for advanced academic material, I found several models, each mixing differing amounts of classical, relativistic and quantum ideas, from which I couldn't find the definite answer to my motivating question.
While relativistic theory may shed some light on the matter, it looks to me as though the reason why magnetic fields interact with electrons the way they do still holds some mystery.
Get a grip on the spade before digging
My attempts to deeply understand the myriad features of the electric universe theory has been dogged by the fact that I don't fully understand the workings of Heaviside's equations. When I try to fix my understanding, I just keep coming back to the counter intuitive nature of magnetic fields. In attempting to understand them, I'm still having new ideas today.
The nature of Birkeland currents offered me some new insight into magnetic fields, and catalyzed a new idea to explain the craziest aspects of magnetic fields. In my head, it makes more sense than any other theory I've heard.
But it requires a small but drastic alteration to electromagnetic theory. This is probably why I haven't read it anywhere else. Heaviside's equations may be hard to fully understand, but all of academia agrees they are correct. And essentially my new idea agrees they are correct. But hidden in the 4 equations, i think I've found a subtle assumption that is possible to question.
Then again I could just be wrong, and working thru this theory may correct my understanding.
I'm hoping to use this blog over the next week or so to clearly and carefully describe this idea I've got.