Speculations About Electromagnetism
Lee Shimmin
Keywords: electric fields, Michael Faraday, electromagnetism
How often it is that we look for complicated explanations for physical phenomena when simpler explanations are generally over-looked. In this paper I will review some well-known features of charged particles and electric fields from a fresh point of view. I shall draw upon a letter from Michael Faraday to his friend, Richard Phillips, written in April of 1846. I will review what we have been taught about electric fields and how Faraday thought about them, keeping what appears useful and ignoring the rest. I will begin to construct a somewhat different theory of electromagnetism, making clear distinctions between the current paradigm and what is being proposed here
