page_title: A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field
section_title: Maxwell – electromagnetic light wave
hierarchical_section_title: A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field / Maxwell – electromagnetic light wave
caption_attribution_description: James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)
context_page_description: "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" is a paper by James Clerk Maxwell on electromagnetism, published in 1865. In the paper, Maxwell derives an electromagnetic wave equation with a velocity for light in close agreement with measurements made by experiment, and deduces that light is an electromagnetic wave.
context_section_description: In part VI of "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field",  subtitled "Electromagnetic theory of light", Maxwell uses the correction to Ampère's Circuital Law made in part III of his 1862 paper, "On Physical Lines of Force", which is defined as displacement current,  to derive the electromagnetic wave equation.
  He obtained a wave equation with a speed in close agreement to experimental determinations of the speed of light. He commented,
  The agreement of the results seems to show that light and magnetism are affections of the same substance, and that light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through the field according to electromagnetic laws.
  Maxwell's derivation of the electromagnetic wave equation has been replaced in modern physics by a much less cumbersome method which combines the corrected version of Ampère's Circuital Law with Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction.
caption: Father of Electromagnetic Theory
exif: {}