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Of course, if you do a non-relativistic calculation you cannot expect that it's giving the correct transformation laws. The most simple way is to use a covariant notation. For the mostion of a charged particle in an external electromagnetic field, given in terms of the Faraday tensor ##F_{\mu \nu}## the relativistic equations of motion readdavidge said:I want just a little clarification on this.
The usual Lorentz force you talked about is a 3-vector equation. We have ##\vec{F} = q (\vec{E} + \vec{v} \times \vec{B})##. Is your last statement quoted above equivalent to saying that under a Galilean transformation ##\vec{F}## does not transform such that ##\vec{F}{}' = \vec{F}##?
I'm going to show a simple calculation
View attachment 211363. The same should hold true for the vector ##\vec{v} \times \vec{B}##. Therefore the Lorentz force should be invariant under Galilean transforms. Am I doing something wrong? OBS: I've made use of ##d / dx##, etc because they transform as vectors. But I think I should have used ##e_x, e_y, e_z## instead.
$$m \frac{\mathrm{d}^2 x^{\mu}}{\mathrm{d} \tau^2} = \frac{q}{c} F^{\mu \nu}(x)\frac{\mathrm{d} x^{\nu}}{\mathrm{d} \tau}.$$
Here ##\tau## is the proper time of the particle. As it must be, both sides transform as contravariant vector components under Lorentz transformations.
For more details and also simple examples, see
http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~hees/pf-faq/srt.pdf
I don't see too much merit of studying non-relativistic electrodynamics (except in the usual cases, where the non-relativistic treatment of the matter particles is sufficient).