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( Relativistic electromagnetism)
Relativistic electromagnetism is the idea of explaining electromagnetism based on relativistic (Albert Einstein 1905) arguments. It was first put forward in 1963 by Edward M. Purcell who wrote an innovative electromagnetism text in which he used special relativity to derive the existence of magnetism and radiation. His method illustrates the physical reason behind many important electrodynamic phenomena. This approach is mathematically easier than the more usual treatment based on the Biot-Savart law, Ampère's law, and Maxwell's equations. Most of Purcell's explanation is based on using the Lorentz contraction factor Purcell argued that the question of an electric field in one reference frame, and how it looks from a different reference frame moving with respect to the first, is crucial to understand fields created by moving sources. In the special case, the sources that create the field are at rest with respect to one of the reference frames. Given the electric field in the frame where the sources are at rest, Purcell asked what is the electric field in some other frame? He stated that the fundamental assumption is that, knowing the electric field at some point (in space and time) in the rest frame of the sources, and knowing the relative velocity of the two frames provided all the information needed to calculate the electric field at the same point in the other frame. In other words, the electric field in the other frame does not depend on the particular distribution of the source charges, only on the local value of the electric field in the first frame at that point. He assumed that the electric field is a complete representation of the influence of the far-away charges.
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