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Standard textbooks says: "Time varying Electric field and magnetic field produce each other".

But Oleg Jefimenko says NO to this.

Who is correct: standard textbooks OR Jefimenko ?

Both can not be right at the same time, I guess. If Jefimenko is correct, does his research deserve Nobel prize? I mean: Is his research of paramount importance?

I am also curious about whether Jackson's book says something about Jefimenko's assertion. (I have not read Jackson's book).

atom
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    Would you mind linking to where you read this? Jefimenko's equations are part of most standard textbooks (Jackson, Griffiths) and I was not aware that there was any clash in viewpoint between them and standard E&M. – zeldredge May 13 '15 at 14:20
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    Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/181277/ – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten May 13 '15 at 14:22
  • The answer of nature to this is totally trivial: she challenges you to create a purely electric or magnetic wave and then she will laugh at your failure to do so. The human interpretation of "which creates which" is a trivial case of poor reasoning, so in that sense both Jefimenko and opposing voices are wrong at the same time. There is not even a question here. Relativity resolves the problem in another way: what is "electric" and what is "magnetic" is simply observer dependent. – CuriousOne May 13 '15 at 17:35
  • @CuriousOne: You said "human interpretation of which creates which is a trivial case of poor reasoning,....". Will you please explain this and also this that in which sense both Jefimenko and opposing voices are wrong at the same time ? – atom May 14 '15 at 03:46
  • @atom: In the sense that electromagnetic fields are units which can not be separated into electric and magnetic components experimentally. If something can not be separated, the question of causality does not occur. I admit that the question seems natural in the way electromagnetism was explored, starting with charges and constant currents, then moving on to induction and finally realizing that the displacement current causes a symmetric term similar to induction, but that's a historic artifact, not a physical reality. If the question doesn't make sense, both "yes" and "no" are incorrect. – CuriousOne May 14 '15 at 03:57
  • Goods textbooks don't claim what you say they do. To vary in time you have to already have values at one moment. Just like to have velocity you must already have a position. And a velocity can't cause a position. The velocity now and the position now could together determine the position later. And that is what happens with electromagnetism. The curl of the electric field determines how the magnetic field changes in time. And the curl of the magnetic field and the current together determine how the electric field changes in time. That's how the field changes. Jefimenko simply picks 1 solution – Timaeus Mar 11 '16 at 19:07

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