Vinaire's Blog

Reference: Disturbance Theory

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The field maintains itself through continual change. This property of maintaining a status quo is called INERTIA. Inertia was first observed by Newton in the context of matter.

Newton defined inertia in his book “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” as follows:

The vis insita, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.

The reality of field was not known at the time of Newton. Now we know that field is a substance more fundamental than matter. So the concept of inertia may now be extended to the electromagnetic field.

The electromagnetic field must form itself continually in each cycle in order to exist Permittivity (ε) is the measure of resistance that is encountered when forming an electric field in a particular medium. Permeability (μ) is a measure of how easily a magnetic field can pass through a medium.

The electromagnetic field forms in an empty background. For this formation the permittivity is ε₀, and the permeability is μ₀. Therefore, this formation faces a resistance equal to (μ₀ε₀). This resistance is a form of inertia.

The speed of light in the empty background is, c = 3 x 10⁸ meters per second. This rate of propagation is finite because the formation of each cycle of light faces a finite resistance. If there were no resistance the speed of light shall be infinite.

There is relationship between the resistance to formation and the rate of propagation of light. This relationship is:

c = 1/√(μ₀ε₀)

The resistance “μ₀ε₀”represents the inertia of the electromagnetic field in the empty background. The units of “μ₀ε₀” are s²/m².

Inertia, therefore, is an aspect of the very formation of substance.

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