I really have to idea on how to ask this question without asking more questions to express my confusion to try to figure out what I am really looking for so please bear with me.
I know Electric and Magnetic fields are related are the fields real or are they just mathematical constructs? If they are real what particles mediate each one? And why do photons have those fields perpendicular to each other?
My trouble understanding comes from a complete confusion about magnets and magnetism, are the poles a separate thing from electrons and protons? What about charge in charged particles?
They interact at a distance, yes there’s a field but how do the forces interact with one another?
In: Physics
Not an expert just like magnets: The Electromagnetic fields are the same in almost all contexts. When current is applied to coils of wire it creates a magnetic field through electrical induction.
This is a great question, and the best way to say it is probably that they are two pieces of the same whole, but the manifest in different ways. It’s analogous to how space and time are very closely intertwined, but on the surface seem very different.
There are kind of two different ways of talking about these fields: the classical way and the quantum way. The classical way is probably what you are more familiar with, so I will stay there. These fields are certainly measurable in the way that we can place charged particles like electrons and protons in them and see how the particles move in the fields. Based on how they move, we can determine whether we are dealing with electric or magnetic fields and we can also determine how strong the fields are. Your question as to why light has to be made up of orthogonal electric and magnetic fields is also an interesting one. The better way to say it, though is probably that the two fields create each other. This is because an electric field which is changing creates a magnetic field and vice versa. So as soon as one propagating, time-varying field is created, the other is as well.
A magnetic field is just what the electric field of moving charged particles look like when they are moving at relativistic speeds (possibly in very small loops inside of conductive materials).
Had this pounded into my head in college in a class where you start with what the electric field of a loop of current looks like using Maxwell’s eqns, transform it using the Special Relativity transformations, then find out you get the classic functions that describe magnetic fields. Near broke my brain & I probably can no longer replicate the math involved, but I’ve always remembered the concept.
There is only one quantum field, electric and magnetic fields are unified through Maxwell’s Equations.
So, there is an electron and a proton, but no magnetic particle. Charge in an intrinsic property of particles in the Standard Model, but magnetism is an effect cause by charge in motion.
Bar magnets are the point of confusion for most students. Just sitting on your desk it has a magnetic field but it sure doesn’t look like it’s moving. However, an an atomic level the electrons are going around those iron or niobium nuclei is a way that produces a magnetic field from stationary atoms.
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