Charge · field · current · radiation

Electromagnetism

Follow charge from the electric field it creates, through voltage and circuits, into magnetism, induction, and finally the self-propagating electromagnetic waves we call light.

Field throughline

Charge creates fields. Changing fields create each other.

Electromagnetism becomes intuitive when fields come before formulas. Static charge creates electric structure. Moving charge creates magnetic structure. Once the fields can change in time, electricity and magnetism stop being separate topics and become one dynamical system.

chargeelectric fieldcurrentmagnetic fieldradiation
sourcefield evolution
01

Charge & Electric Fields

How does charge change the space around it?

charge → field → force
move the pointer through the field to arc nearby nodes
Electromagnetic pathway

Watch one theory emerge from six linked ideas.

Maxwell's equations belong at the synthesis point. First build intuition for the physical objects those equations relate.

principle
Fields carry local information

A charged object responds to the electric and magnetic fields at its location. It does not need a direct line-of-action instruction from a distant source.

principle
Electricity and magnetism are coupled

Static cases can look separate. Time-varying fields reveal the deeper unity: changing electric and magnetic fields generate one another.

principle
Light is an electromagnetic wave

Radio, microwaves, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays are the same field phenomenon at different frequencies.