derivation of wave equation from Maxwells equations

invisiblerhino 2013-03-22 0:30:54

Maxwell was the rst to note that Amp` eres Law does not satisfy conservation of charge (his corrected form is given in Maxwells equation). This can be shown using the equation of conservation of electric charge: J+ =0 t

Now consider Faradays Law in dierential form: E= Taking the curl of both sides: ( E) = ( B ) t B t

The right-hand side may be simplied by noting that ( Recalling Amp` eres Law, Therefore ( B) = 0 t
0

B ) = ( B) t t

2E t2

2E t2 The left hand side may be simplied by the following vector identity: ( E) = 0
0

( E) = 2 E
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2E t2 Applying the same analysis to Amp eres Law then substituting in Faradays Law leads to the result 2E 2 B = 0 0 2 t 2 E = 0
0

Hence

Making the substitution 0 0 = 1/c2 we note that these equations take the form of a transverse wave travelling at constant speed c. Maxwell evaluated the constants 0 and 0 according to their known values at the time and concluded that c was approximately equal to 310,740,000 ms1 , a value within 3% of todays results!