Electromagnetic Field [ENDORSED]
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Electromagnetic Field
Can someone please explain why, in the electromagnetic field, the electric field points upward while the magnetic field points rightward?
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Re: Electromagnetic Field
Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's arbitrary which field points in which direction, and it's only done this way for convention. What matters is that the waves propagate at right angles to one another.
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Re: Electromagnetic Field
I agree. I also think it's arbitrary. None of them technically point upward or to the right, it is just a matter of how they are viewed and at what angles.
Re: Electromagnetic Field
It helps with how we imagine everything. There's also something called the right-hand rule that shows the positioning of these fields relative to each other.
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Re: Electromagnetic Field
I think the direction of the waves can be interchangeable as long as they are drawn perpendicular to each other.
Re: Electromagnetic Field [ENDORSED]
As other people have already said, the key takeaway is that Electric and Magnetic Fields are perpendicular, but if you wanted to learn more about why this is true you might want to look into Maxwell's Equations. I'm not sure if this course covers Maxwell, but you will learn it if you take the physics series.
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Re: Electromagnetic Field
The E-M fields are perpendicular to each other always while they oscillate. The electric field can oscillate up and down if the magnetic field oscillates right and left. These oscillations form the light wave.
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Re: Electromagnetic Field
The direction does not matter as long as the two are perpendicular to one another.
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