2024/05/20 by P. Žugec, Petar Žugec, Davor Horvatić +1 · 1 voice
Engineering · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Characterization and Applications of Magnetic Nanoparticles #Classical mechanics #Contraction (grammar) #Electric charge #Experimental and Theoretical Physics Studies #Length contraction #Lorentz transformation #Medicine #Physics #Point particle #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #physics.gen-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6404/ad4e20
published in European Journal of Physics 45(4), 045204 (IOP Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2024/05/20 · openalex created_date 2024/05/21 · arxiv published 2025/03/05 · arxiv updated 2025/03/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We examine a logical foundation of depicting a Lorentz contraction of a Coulomb field (an electric field of a point charge in uniform motion) by means of the ‘Lorentz contracted’ field lines. Two existing arguments for a contraction of field lines sound appealing and lead to very simple calculations yielding the correct results. However, one of them is a victim to subtle logical weaknesses, as it relies on ascribing a degree of physical reality to the electric field lines. The other one correctly proves what it sets out to prove. But it does not provide a proof, or even a suggestion, of an additional result that can be obtained by a new poof that we present here. Though our idea is very simple, the calculations used to prove it—based on a little known, half a century old result by Tsien—are somewhat more involved than those from past arguments.