Are Maxwell's equations theoretically sound?

[Xilus]

are maxwells equations theoretically accurate?
do they describe electromagnetism?

its basically a series of differential equations for describing the electric, and magnetic fields.
including particle motion and the field it creates?

the electric field makes a lot of sense. but what is magnetism?
why is it so elusive?

why do we consider light similar to an electric field?
why would we unify? i say we don't unify.

 

[Dale]

do they describe electromagnetism?

Not completely, that is why we developed quantum electrodynamics.

why would we unify? i say we don't unify

Its a done deal, not currently a topic of debate amongst professional scientists.

 

[Vanadium 50]

i say we don't unify.

In science, an opinion has to be justified to have merit. It's not like "I don't like broccoli". As Dale says, it's too late - we already know that electricity and magnetism are two aspects of the same, electromagnetic, force.

 

[Drakkith]

the electric field makes a lot of sense. but what is magnetism?
why is it so elusive?

It's not elusive. It's understood extremely well. What is it that gives you the impression that we don't understand magnetism?

why do we consider light similar to an electric field?

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of experiments support the theory that light is an electromagnetic wave. Nothing else predicts the effect that light will have better than our current electromagnetic theories. Maxwell's equations are enormously successful in accurately describing the behavior of light.

 

[Xilus]

ok there is no way maxwell wrote the equations without the discovery of electrons.

 

[rumborak]

ok there is no way maxwell wrote the equations without the discovery of electrons.

Errr ... so you dispute history now? Maxwell died in 1879, the electron was discovered in 1897.

 

[Nugatory]

A very long and misinformation-laden digression has been removed from this thread.
Many posters have put much work into thoughtful and well-reasoned responses to the misinformation, and I regret that their work has disappeared with this thread cleanup.

If you would like a copy of your removed posts for future use or to start another thread, any mentor can recover them for you - just ask in the next few days.