- #1
Sturk200
- 168
- 17
Hi!
I am struggling with what I think is probably a fairly simple step in Landau & Lifshitz derivation of the fields from the Lienard-Wiechert potential. We have the potential in terms of a primed set of coordinates but the fields are defined in terms of derivatives with respect to unprimed coordinates; the two are related by
$$t'+{R(t')\over{c}} = t$$
where R is the distance from the point charge to the field point at time t' and time t is the moment of observation.
The step that I am having trouble with is in finding an expression for the gradient of t'. Landau has:
$$\nabla t' = -\frac{1}{c}\nabla R(t') = -\frac{1}{c} \bigg(\frac{\partial R}{\partial t'} \nabla t' + \frac{\textbf{R}}{R}\bigg)$$
The first equality obviously follows from the equation above. The second equality is where I am stumped. I would think that it should be simply
$$\nabla R(t') = \frac{\partial R}{\partial t'} \nabla t'$$.
Does anyone know where that extra unit vector term comes from?
Thanks!
I am struggling with what I think is probably a fairly simple step in Landau & Lifshitz derivation of the fields from the Lienard-Wiechert potential. We have the potential in terms of a primed set of coordinates but the fields are defined in terms of derivatives with respect to unprimed coordinates; the two are related by
$$t'+{R(t')\over{c}} = t$$
where R is the distance from the point charge to the field point at time t' and time t is the moment of observation.
The step that I am having trouble with is in finding an expression for the gradient of t'. Landau has:
$$\nabla t' = -\frac{1}{c}\nabla R(t') = -\frac{1}{c} \bigg(\frac{\partial R}{\partial t'} \nabla t' + \frac{\textbf{R}}{R}\bigg)$$
The first equality obviously follows from the equation above. The second equality is where I am stumped. I would think that it should be simply
$$\nabla R(t') = \frac{\partial R}{\partial t'} \nabla t'$$.
Does anyone know where that extra unit vector term comes from?
Thanks!