A derivation of Maxwell's equations using the Heaviside notation

TL;DR

This paper derives Maxwell's equations using Heaviside notation from static laws, assuming charge conservation and local laws, without relying on relativistic assumptions, providing a new perspective on classical electromagnetism.

Contribution

It presents a novel derivation of Maxwell's equations from static laws using a well-established approach, avoiding relativistic assumptions.

Findings

Maxwell's equations derived without relativistic assumptions

Charge conservation and local laws suffice for derivation

Faraday's law derived from static laws without relativity

Abstract

Maxwell's four differential equations describing electromagnetism are amongst the most famous equations in science. Feynman said that they provide four of the seven fundamental laws of classical physics. In this paper, we derive Maxwell's equations using a well-established approach for deriving time-dependent differential equations from static laws. The derivation uses the standard Heaviside notation. It assumes conservation of charge and that Coulomb's law of electrostatics and Ampere's law of magnetostatics are both correct as a function of time when they are limited to describing a local system. It is analogous to deriving the differential equation of motion for sound, assuming conservation of mass and that Hooke's static law of elasticity holds for a system in local equilibrium. We demonstrate that Faraday's law can be derived without any relativistic assumptions about Lorentz invariance and discuss creation of charge.