The Transverse Electromagnetic Wave; a lost concept.
After 30 years of insisting
that Ivor Catt did not exist as a contributor to e-m theory, the IEE finally
published a review by B Lago (who Lynch said today he thinks really does exist)
lambasting my 1994 book "Electromagnetism 1", which is now at www.ivorcatt.com/em.htm
IEE Journal
"Electronics & Communication Engineering" oct95, p218; "....
There are many items in this book which give cause for concern, for example the
false statement that 'The Transverse Electromagnetic Wave has virtually
disappeared from today's electromagnetic theory'." - B Lago
.
.
Scandals in Electromagnetic Theory
http://www.ivorcatt.com/28scan.htm
Ivor 24july01
British Library. Recently, I went to the new British Library HQ in St. Pancras London and went through the 20 books on electromagnetism on their shelves - the most recent books, which are the ones they show (except mine has been banished to the dungeons in Yorkshire).
None of the
books have a diagram of the Transverse Electromagnetic Wave - the E, H and c
all at right angles. There was no discussion of the nature of the transverse
electromagnetic wave in any of the books. They are definitely worse than the
books published 20, 40 years ago. There is virtually no mention of Displacement
Current in these 20 books. At most, two have discussion of Maxwell cutting the
Gordian Knot over the capacitor, leading to displacement current. However, I
should probably say with more accuracy that this is not mentioned in any of the
20 books.
Yesterday I
went to the IEE, Savoy Place, London, library. I went through the 60 books on
the shelves in the "electromagnetism" section. They included my book
The Catt Anomaly, but my 1994 book Electromagnetism 1 has been
condemned to the IEE dungeons. (I recently presented the two books to the IEE
Library.) [Aug03. My A5 version of Electromagnetism 1, presented
by me more recently, a year ago, has been placed in the IEE Library. It has not
been borrowed, neither has the book The Catt Anomaly. However, their
inside covers show that no other book on electromagnetic theory has been
borrowed from the IEE library either for some years.]
None of the 60
books contained a diagram showing the transverse electromagnetic wave.
(Virtually no discussion of displacement current. What little there is, is as
an added term in a formula; no discussion of its origins. Thus, today's young
lecturer (let
alone the young student) will not have access to Displacement Current, let alone the
Transverse Electromagnetic Wave, which latter is the main thrust of this
discourse.)
(Exceptions.
One book had two sine waves, one at right angles to the other, representing the
E and H fields. However, there was no velocity. Another book had two lines, one
for E and the other for H, but they were not quite at right angles. Also, no
velocity. Apart from those two, (Collin and Wolf), no book had diagrams.)
.
In IEE Library. R E Collin, (Prof.
of Electrical Eng., Case Western Reserve Univ.,) "Field Theory of Guided
Waves", pub. IEEE Press 1990;
Displacement
current is not in its index, which however contains "Transverse
Electromagnetic Waves, definition, p173". This turns out to be 20 pages of
fancy maths with no diagram of a Transverse Electromagnetic Wave.
Back cover;
"Long considered the most comprehensive account of electromagnetic
theory... practical and comprehensive ...."
.
In IEE Library. David E De Wolf, (Prof. of Elect. Eng., Virginia Poly
Inst. and State Univ.) "Essentials of Electromagnetics for Engineers", pub.
Cambridge U.P. 2001.
Transverse
Electromagnetic Waves, p390. No diagram. p409 No proper diagram. It appears
that there is no diagram of the transverse electromagnetic wave in the book.
..
..
In both the British Library
and the IEE Library, old books are relegated to the dungeon. Thus, a lecturer
who is assigned the task of lecturing on electromagnetic theory will have no
access to information which will give him a grasp of the transverse
electromagnetic wave. The Transverse Electromagnetic Wave has been lost to
lecturers as well as to students. (The only place in the last 25 years where
the Transverse Electromagnetic Wave is described is in my 1994/5 book Electromagnetism
1 (see library dungeon), and in The Catt Anomaly, p3.)
Ivor Catt 26july01
[From I Catt, Wireless
World, feb84]
In his letter, published in
Wireless World nov83, W M Dalton hit a nasty land-mine that I first
noticed some years ago. Let me first quote the moment when he hits it.
"Let us start from
known facts. (1) Light is an electromagnetic phenomenon: demonstrated by
Faraday and Kerr. (2) Light is not a static problem: it is oscillatory (Hertz).
(3) The electric and magnetic fields are at right angles and always 90
degrees out of phase. Some recent textbooks show these in-phase - an
unpardonable error."
I am anxious that Mr Dalton
expands on why this error is unpardonable, and what disasters this error might
lead us into.
First let me list some non-recent
textbooks which show these in-phase.
G. W. Carter, Professor of
Electrical Engineering in the University of Leeds, in his book The
Electromagnetic Field in its Engineering aspects, (Longman 1954) draws the
B and E fields in-phase on page 271. Significantly, although he emphasises that
E and B are at right angles (page 274) he never seems to say in the text that B
and E are in phase.
F. Kip, Professor of
Physics, University of California, Berkeley, in his book Fundamentals of
Electricity and Magnetism, (McGraw-Hill 1962) draws the H and E fields
in-phase on page 322. On that same page the text says that the two fields are
perpendicular to each other, but does not state that they are in-phase. Again,
significantly, I cannot find mention in the text that they are in-phase.
O Heaviside F.R.S., in his
book Electromagnetic Theory Vol 3, 1912, in art. 452, page 4, wrote
"The General Plane
Wave
the slab may be of any depth and any strength, and there may be any
number of slabs side by side behaving in the same way, all moving along
independently and unchanged. So E = uvH expresses the general solitary wave,
where, at a given moment, E may be an arbitrary function of x
" [Replace
uv by sq.rt. u/e - I Catt]
Whereas some books (Carter
and Kip) vaguely indicate that E and H are in-phase, other books seem to fail
to discuss relative phase at all, see for example Cullwick 1959, Bewley 1933.
The trap was nicely set for Dalton, and he has my sympathy.
Now let us turn to my
article in Wireless World, July 1979, entitled The Heaviside Signal.
"We have shown that
the passage of a Transverse Electromagnetic Wave and all the mathematics that
has mushroomed around it does not rely on a causality relationship (or
interchange) between the electric field and the magnetic field. Rather, they
are co-existent, co-substantial, co-eternal."
In that article I compare
and contrast two mutually contradictory versions of the transverse
electromagnetic wave. I believe that the full realisation that E and H are
in-phase deals a death-blow to one of those versions, the rolling wave, and
leaves the other, the Heaviside Signal, the victor.
Because the differential of
sin is cos and the differential of cos is minus sin, half-witted mathematicians
have invaded the physics of the Transverse Electromagnetic Wave and imposed a
spurious story that E causes H causes E. Since sin, cos and -sin are 90 degrees
out of phase, part of their phoney baggage is to imply that E and H are 90
degrees out of phase. (See my article in Wireless World in March 1980.)
Because the sin wave is amenable to mathematical high jinks, another part of
their baggage is to imply that a Transverse Electromagnetic Wave is sinusoidal.
It's time we cleaned the claptrap out of electromagnetic theory.
Ivor Catt, Wireless
World, feb84.
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I understand that
Aristotelians believed that a force was necessary to keep bodies in motion and
that, in the absence of a force, the motion would cease. This theory led them
into certain difficulties. For instance a spear, once thrown, appeared to
continue to move without a force being present. The philosophers rose to this
challenge magnificently with a theory that air, displaced from ahead of the
spear, rushed round to the rear and generated the requisite force - the theory
was saved. Unfortunately they missed the simple point first noted by Newton,
that it is in the nature of a moving body to continue to move.
In the same way I fear that
Maxwell invented a complex explanation for a very simple phenomenon, i.e. that
electromagnetic radiation, or energy current, moves at the speed of light - and
that's all, because that is what energy current does. No mechanism invoking E
producing H and H, in return, producing E is required
..
- Dr. D. S. Walton, Wireless World, nov1989.
***************************************************************
When it is realised that in
a TEM Wave, E and H are in phase, the ludicrous nature of the Rolling Wave ( www.ivorcatt.com/2604.htm ), where E causes H causes E,
becomes obvious. It is as if, in the case of the arrow, the air pushed out of
the way by the arrow then sucks the arrow forwards without even having to go
round to the back. Lecture room control requires that unambiguous information
about the relative phase of E and H have to be kept from the student. - Ivor
Catt 3may02
***************************************************************
Note by Nigel Cook.
This is very important. The fact is that IEE
published B Lago claiming that the TEM wave exists in electromagnetism today,
when it does not. I first heard about it from Ivor, it was not on either the
syllabus or in the textbooks for GCSE, A-level, and undergraduate (Surrey
University and Open University Physics Modules) physics.
Physics is the most pompous, pretentious, and
fraudulent discipline (or rather, lack of discipline!) there is. The
application of mathematics in physics is used as a front to block understanding
which would lead to the exposure of the corruption. The textbooks on
electromagnetism which Ivor refers to are the sort of trash which puts off
every real scientist. The only people who get through the filters set up are
crossword class mathematicians, who plod through the trash, then repeat it in
exams, then repeat it again to their students, then repeat the same in their
textbooks. It is a closed cycle.
Electromagnetism should be taught as the core
of physics, the nature of all matter in the universe, even the vacuum itself
being electromagnetic as Ivor says, since it has a specific impedance of 377
ohms, permittivity, and permability. Instead, the charlatans teach
electromagnetism as a technical detail concerned with obscure mathematical
physics. The problem is to break through the barrier, to discredit the
Establishment without stooping to their level in the process. I am glad that
Ivor had dug out his 1980s computer disc of visual explanation of the TEM wave.
It should hopefully be exactly what is needed.
Nigel Cook 27july01
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3may02. My co-author Malcolm Davidson and also someone else independently find that the key explanation is removed from later (recent) editions of a standard reference book. Thus, we see before us the forced decline in comprehension of the subject. www.ivorcatt.com/2607.htm