Difference between revisions of "When and Where is a Current Electrically Neutral?"
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| − | Many textbooks of electromagnetism give an example in which a current-carrying wire is alleged to be electrically neutral when at rest in the laboratory. They then show that the Lorentz contraction of moving charge, demanded by special relativity theory, causes a bunching of positive charge and a thinning of negative charge in the inertial system co-moving with the conduction electrons, with a resulting charge density imbalance and non-vanishing electric field measurable in that system. By a more careful application of special relativity theory, we show, on the contrary, that the wire cannot be strictly neutral in its rest system. Therefore the textbook calculations are in error.[[Category:Scientific Paper]] | + | Many textbooks of electromagnetism give an example in which a current-carrying wire is alleged to be electrically neutral when at rest in the laboratory. They then show that the Lorentz contraction of moving charge, demanded by special relativity theory, causes a bunching of positive charge and a thinning of negative charge in the inertial system co-moving with the conduction electrons, with a resulting charge density imbalance and non-vanishing electric field measurable in that system. By a more careful application of special relativity theory, we show, on the contrary, that the wire cannot be strictly neutral in its rest system. Therefore the textbook calculations are in error. |
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| + | [[Category:Scientific Paper|current electrically neutral]] | ||
[[Category:Relativity]] | [[Category:Relativity]] | ||
Revision as of 11:39, 1 January 2017
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | When and Where is a Current Electrically Neutral? |
| Read in full | Link to paper |
| Author(s) | Thomas E Phipps |
| Keywords | {{{keywords}}} |
| Published | 2011 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the NPA |
| Volume | 8 |
| No. of pages | 2 |
| Pages | 449-451 |
Read the full paper here
Abstract
Many textbooks of electromagnetism give an example in which a current-carrying wire is alleged to be electrically neutral when at rest in the laboratory. They then show that the Lorentz contraction of moving charge, demanded by special relativity theory, causes a bunching of positive charge and a thinning of negative charge in the inertial system co-moving with the conduction electrons, with a resulting charge density imbalance and non-vanishing electric field measurable in that system. By a more careful application of special relativity theory, we show, on the contrary, that the wire cannot be strictly neutral in its rest system. Therefore the textbook calculations are in error.
