sci.physics.electromag

On Mar 5, 9:37=A0pm, "FrediFizzx" wrote:
> ...
> Sorry, but it doesn't take any math (vector addition, curl, etc.) to try
> to push the north poles of two bar magnets together and realize there is
> a "force field" of some kind there. =A0;-) =A0As it turns out, the math of=

> Maxwell fields can accurately describe that phenomenon.
>
> Best,
>
> Fred Diether
> Co-moderator =A0sci.physics.foundations
Come on, Fred, get real. There's a world of difference between the
macroscopic experience of feeling the push/pull of human-scale magnets
and the proposal that the space in between (and actually, everywhere,
if you check out the DEFINITION of a 'field') is filled with real
'fields'. Maxwell's original EM theory was constructed on the concept
of a real medium - the aether (go read his 1865 EM paper). The
dispacements and twists of this medium were MAPPED to the mathematics
of vector fields. The modern technique for describing Maxwell's
theory drops all this aether stuff & let's space itself play this
role, without calling it an aether (too old fashioned). Instead,
classical EM resurrects Helmholtz's wrong electric fluid model in the
disguise of 'electric charge density' (now doesn't that sound a lot
more modern & scientific?) . Unfortunately, the experimentalists came
along around 1900 and said, "sorry, it's not continuous, electricity
EXISTS in the form of electrons, which have turned out to be like
points - no size" (sorry, DesCartes, matter is NOT continuous and it
does NOT need spatial extension). So, at best, Maxwell's Equations
are a statistical summary (over a lot of electrons & a lot of
interactions) that can be approximated by continuum mathematics, which
can be summed (sorry, integrated) back to the human scale where all
this began & voila, it fits our experience! If you liked that 'white
rabbit' I heard there's a bridge in NY...
Say it again, Fred. "Fields really exist." Come onnnn, let's get
back to REALITY.