Laws of Science - Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism

Maxwell's equations give the time-evolution of the electric and magnetic fields due to electric charge and current distributions. Given the fields, the Lorentz force law is the equation of motion for charges in the fields.

Maxwell's equations Gauss's law for electricity Gauss's law for magnetism Faraday's law Ampère's circuital law (with Maxwell's correction)	Lorentz force law:
Quantum electrodynamics (QED): Maxwell's equations are generally true and consistent with relativity - but they do not predict some observed quantum phenomena (e.g. light propagation as EM waves, rather than photons, see Maxwell's equations for details). They are modified in QED theory.

Due to the many symmetries in physics which occur (and are apparent from physical laws), it may seem strange that no monopole terms appear, but this is because no monopoles have been found (yet): if magnetic monopoles do exist, the equations would be symmetric.

Pre-Maxwell laws

These laws are not fundamental, since they can be derived from Maxwell's Equations. Coulomb's Law can be found from Gauss' Law (electrostatic form) and the Biot-Savart Law can be deduced from Ampere's Law (magnetostatic form). Lenz' Law and Faraday's Law can be incorporated into the Maxwell-Faraday equation. Nonetheless they are still very effective for simple calculations.

• Lenz's law
• Coulomb's Law
• Biot-Savart law

Other laws

• Ohm's law
• Kirchoff's laws
• Joule's law