Charge, field, and the dance of light.
Electromagnetism
Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light into one elegant framework. Fields fill space, push charges, and travel as electromagnetic waves.
Chapter outline
Lessons in this chapter
Short, focused lessons. Each one ends with a worked example and a quick quiz.
Key concepts at a glance
The essential ideas, paired with their equations.
Coulomb's Law
01Force between two point charges.
Gauss's Law
02Electric flux through a closed surface equals enclosed charge.
Faraday's Law
03A changing magnetic flux induces an EMF — the principle behind generators.
Ampère–Maxwell
04Currents and changing electric fields create magnetic fields.
Lorentz Force
05Total electromagnetic force on a moving charge.
Maxwell's Equations
06Four equations that fully describe classical electromagnetism and predict light.
Frequently asked
What is an electromagnetic field?+
A region of space where electric and magnetic forces act on charges, described jointly by Maxwell's equations.
Is light an electromagnetic wave?+
Yes — light is a self-propagating oscillation of electric and magnetic fields at speed c.