Maxwell's Equations

Maxwell's equations classically explain all that is electro-magnetic. They are the four equations shown above. This is a short hand notation that makes them really compact. In fact E and B are vector quantities, the electric and magnetic fields. The triangle thing (&nabla) represents a differential operation being applied to E or B. The symbol &rho is the charge distribution, t is time, &epsilon₀ and &mu₀ are constants, j is any electrical current, c is the speed of light .

The wave equation can be derived (when &rho =0, j=0) from these four equations. This wave is the light we see, as well as the radio waves and X-rays we use. These differential equations are actually partial differential equations, or the multi-variable version of ordinary differential equations.