Electricity and magnetism
Electricity and magnetism are strongly related fields of Physics therefore we put them together into one part of this tutorial on physics. It is hard to find an example where magnetism exist without electricity and electricity without a magnetism associated with it. Any motion of electric charges constitutes an electric current and any electric current is a source of a magnetic field.
We will start this part of the physics tutorial with electricity, or more precisely, with static electricity. This is the customary way of teaching these matters and we will follow it.
Electrostatics is a branch of electricity which deals with electric charges which are not in motion – they are static. There are plenty of things to learn about Electrostatics and you will see how many phenomena observed in every day life can be associated with electric charges and with static electricity. Knowing and understanding the laws governing the behavior of electric charges is very useful and can prevent us from acting in a way which might lead to a dangerous accident.
After finishing with Electrostatics we will learn about the electric current and about magnetic fields created by this current.
Finally we will present and explain equations which in some way summarize all knowledge concerning electricity and magnetism. They are called Maxwell’s equations. This will be a higher level of knowledge. Electromagnetism is a widely used name for all the phenomena involving electricity and magnetism.
If you would like a more theoretical and very general approach to all phenomena involving electricity and magnetism at the macro and micro level, you should study electrodynamics which is further divided into classical and quantum electrodynamics. But these subjects will not be covered in this physics tutorial.
As mentioned at the beginning of this physics tutorial it is constantly “under construction” in the sense that it is continuously growing. We hope that it will be helpfull for people studying physics at all levels, form high school up to university.