| MadSci Network: Engineering |
Hello, Colleague No. Magnetic fields are magnetic fields and electric fields are electric fields. How much flux (how many lines of force) each field produces depends on permeability for magnetic and permittivity for electric. These are material properties, and are independent of each other. It is clear that static (unchanging) electric and static magnetic fields do not interact. The fun begins when an electric (or magnetic) field is changing. James Clerk Maxwell showed changing electric fields create magnetic fields and vice-versa. An electromagnetic wave is pictured as an electric field vector and a magnetic field vector at 90 degrees to it moving at light speed in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the two. Each field is related to the other, but one is still electric and the other is magnetic. There's lots of things to think about when talking of changes in reference frame. For example, if a wire carries moving charges, a magnetic field is exists around the wire in this reference frame. But, if you were to run alongside the wire exactly as fast as the charges were moving, you'd experience no magnetic field! Hope this helps. Larry Skarin
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