The Importance of the Human Observer to Einstein's Resolution to the Problem of the Existence of an Electric Field When a Magnet is Moved Though a Stationary Wire Coil and the Absence of an Electric Field When a Wire Coil is Moved Over a Stationary Magnet

POSTER

Abstract

Einstein solved a problem resulting from Faraday’s experiments that: 1 moving a magnet through a stationary wire coil creates an electric field and current and 2 moving a wire coil over a stationary magnet creates an electric current but no electric field. Einstein relied on 2 coordinate systems (cs_s) moving relative to each other with constant velocity v, with the magnet at rest in 1 cs and the coil at rest in the other cs. Lorentz coordinate transformation equations are used to develop em field transformation equations for these 2cs_s. In Einstein’s solution, though, there is an electric field and current when the magnet is stationary and the coil is moving. The resolution to this problem relies on experimental evidence that a human observer (ho) moving at a constant velocity can experience himself as at rest as long as he does not know he is moving. The ho in the cs designated as moving experiences himself at rest. He sees the magnet as moving since he experiences himself as stationary and he sees the coil as stationary since he is moving with the same velocity as the coil. It is only through knowing what the ho perceives that one can know whether or not he is in the moving cs in which the ho sees the magnet moving, the coil stationary, and an electric field and current.

Presenters

  • Douglas M Snyder

    • None

Authors

  • Douglas M Snyder

    • None