- #1
HarryWertM
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From another Physicsforums thread I found this outstanding webpage:
http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/genrel/ch09/ch09.html"
which contains this startling statement:
Suppose you place a highly charged ball in space and oscillate it with an insulating piston connected to a simple mechanical engine which is in turn connected to a non conducting inertial mass.
Do you not have an oscillating electric monopole?
Or, consider a very long straight wire connected at both ends to small spheres. A current is generated in the wire by a "pioint sized" generator. Charges are built up on the two spheres, but they are so far apart you can easily detect the field from the nearest sphere independently of the other.
Effectively, measurably, an electric monopole?
Would the waves from these travel at c?
Is there a solution to Maxwell's equations for these?
http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/genrel/ch09/ch09.html"
which contains this startling statement:
In electromagnetism, conservation of charge forbids the existence of an oscillating electric monopole.
Suppose you place a highly charged ball in space and oscillate it with an insulating piston connected to a simple mechanical engine which is in turn connected to a non conducting inertial mass.
Do you not have an oscillating electric monopole?
Or, consider a very long straight wire connected at both ends to small spheres. A current is generated in the wire by a "pioint sized" generator. Charges are built up on the two spheres, but they are so far apart you can easily detect the field from the nearest sphere independently of the other.
Effectively, measurably, an electric monopole?
Would the waves from these travel at c?
Is there a solution to Maxwell's equations for these?
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