Electromagnetic Fields and Waves: Notes, Solved Problems and Interactive Lab

1 Introduction

This first chapter introduces the idea of a field, the quantities with which the theory is built, the units and universal constants, and the notation used throughout these notes.

1 interactive tool

Electromagnetic field theory explains how electric charges and currents act on one another across space. This first chapter introduces the idea of a field, the quantities with which the theory is built, the system of units and the universal constants that appear in every formula, the way the subject is developed in these notes, and the notation used throughout.

In this chapter you will learn

what a field is, and why we describe electric and magnetic effects with fields,
which quantities are the sources and which are the fields,
the SI units and the three universal constants $c$ , $ε_{0}$ , $μ_{0}$ , and
the notation used in the rest of the notes, and how the notes are organised.

1 Introduction

Contents of Chapter 1