What is Weber's Electrodynamics?

[Heirot]

Can someone tell me what Weber's electrodynamics is all about? I ran across it while reading Jackson's Classical electrodynamics.

Thanks!

 

[malawi_glenn]

http://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis/Pramana-J-Phys-V55-p393-404(2000).pdf

 

[astrokreng]

Weber's electrodynamics is a theory of electromagnetism developed by German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber in the mid-19th century. It is an alternative to the more well-known theory of electromagnetism developed by James Clerk Maxwell. Weber's theory is based on the concept of "action at a distance," where electric and magnetic forces act on each other instantaneously, rather than through the propagation of electromagnetic waves as described in Maxwell's theory.

Weber's electrodynamics also introduces the concept of a "universal constant" that relates the strength of electric and magnetic forces, which is similar to the modern concept of the speed of light in Maxwell's theory. However, unlike Maxwell's theory, Weber's electrodynamics does not account for the phenomenon of light and its propagation.

While Weber's theory was initially well-received and used to explain various experimental results, it was eventually superseded by Maxwell's theory due to its inability to fully explain certain phenomena, such as electromagnetic induction. Nevertheless, Weber's electrodynamics remains an important part of the history of electromagnetism and continues to be studied and discussed in modern physics.