Why do accelerated charges emit e/m radiation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sor2char
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Charges Radiation
AI Thread Summary
Accelerated charged particles emit electromagnetic radiation due to the propagation of electromagnetic disturbances at the speed of light. When a charge accelerates, the information about its change in motion reaches points in space at different times, creating a wavefront. This phenomenon explains why electrons cannot simply orbit the nucleus without spiraling inward, as described in Bohr's model. The discussion references a text that incorporates relativity to clarify these concepts. Understanding this radiation is crucial for grasping fundamental physics principles.
sor2char
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Hi first time post here and the site is awesome.
Question is in the title really. I am a second year physicist at UMIST, manchester, England and worry about why an accelerated charged particle loses energy via e/m radiation. For example Bohr's model of the atom consisting of electrons physically orbitting the nucleus was proved incorrect as the elctrons would spiral towards the centre.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
the purcell text i used this year had a very good explanation based in relativity, somewhat replicated at this site: www.chem.yale.edu/~cas/jenkins.html[/URL]

basically, electromagnetic disturbances propagate at the speed of light. so the information that the charge (and the field from the charge) has acclerated reaches a certain point away from the charge at a later time, indicated by the picture to the right. this creates a sort of wavefront.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thread 'Motional EMF in Faraday disc, co-rotating magnet axial mean flux'
So here is the motional EMF formula. Now I understand the standard Faraday paradox that an axis symmetric field source (like a speaker motor ring magnet) has a magnetic field that is frame invariant under rotation around axis of symmetry. The field is static whether you rotate the magnet or not. So far so good. What puzzles me is this , there is a term average magnetic flux or "azimuthal mean" , this term describes the average magnetic field through the area swept by the rotating Faraday...
Back
Top