How about giving a few examples of the sort of answer you'd find satisfactory?
Sent from my iPhone. On May 25, 2011, at 20:33, "Mark Iverson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Robin beat me to the punch... I was changing spark-plugs and serpentine belts > on my car! > > Robin hits the nail on the head... Anything mathematical is the MODEL, and is > supposed to reflect > physical reality. My question was about the physical world -- what I was > asking got was a rational, > qualitative, cause and effect sort of explanation. > > As Robin stated, twice now, and I'll state it a third time, > "The perpendicular nature of E and B fields existed PRIOR to Maxwell, or even > cavemen, or even life > on this planet!" > > I'm afraid that this reflects very poorly on JC's understanding of what is > more fundamental, the > experiment (physical reality, facts) or model (theory). JC has shown a great > ability to regurgitate > what he has read in his textbooks, in great detail, but his responses to this > simple question seems > to indicate that he hasn't any idea of the difference between physical > reality and the mathematical > models that attempt to explain what is observed. > > Care to put your horse before the cart this time and give it another stab, > Joshua? > And you'd better not have any mathematical jargon in your answer... > > PS: I mean, stab at explaining perpendicularity of E and B fields, not stab > your horse! > :-) > > -Mark > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 4:35 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Vo]: Why are the electric and magnetic fields perpendicular? > > In reply to Joshua Cude's message of Wed, 25 May 2011 17:54:32 -0500: > Hi, > [snip] >> Maxwell's equations were developed to describe laboratory electricity >> and magnetism experiments. > > ...from which the peculiar perpendicular nature of the phenomenon was already > evident. > >> The resulting equations then predicted the existence of electromagnetic >> waves with the correct speed. As Maxwell put it: "The conclusion was >> inescapable: light is "an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of >> waves" propogated in the ether." > > True. > >> The equations also require that the >> field are perpendicular. > > I think that was already evident from the experiments, and the maths was > designed specifically to > encompass this fact (otherwise it would have yielded incorrect results). > > Note that Maxwell actually brought together the work done by a number of > others and created an > encompassing mathematical treatment of their work, but the perpendicular > aspect was already in that > work. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html >
