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Electrodynamics
As a branch of physics, classical electrodynamics deals with moving electric charges as well as the associated electric and magnetic fields. The founder of electrodynamics, the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, was chosen who set up, between 1861 and 1864, the Maxwell equations named after him (basis for calculation of such phenomena). Furthermore, the sub-field is based on the findings on the electromagnetic interaction.
Electrodynamics and magnetostatics, which primarily investigate static electric charges and their fields or uncharged conductors and constant magnetic fields, are opposed to electrodynamics. Because electrodynamics also investigates electromagnetic waves (for example, light), other physical branches such as optics also access this knowledge.
What is electrodynamics about?
Electromagnetism provides the underlying explanation for magnetic and electrical phenomena. Electrodynamics, in turn, has a physical theory to describe electromagnetism, which is why theoretical electrodynamics is also used.
The focus of electrodynamics is the realization that electricity and magnetism are closely linked. That On the one hand, moving charges generate magnetic fields, but on the other hand, it is also the variable magnetic fields, that cause electrical currents and voltages. In most cases, electromagnetic phenomena can be described both in matter and in vacuum.
The Maxwell equations are still valid today. Therefore, you could prove with their help, that there must be electromagnetic waves, and how they affect the matter. The findings of electrodynamics have always had a major impact on science and technology (radio waves, X-rays, microwaves, heat insulation, etc.).
What does electrodynamics have to do with the theory of relativity?
For a long time, no one could explain how electromagnetic waves spread. Many physicists therefore assumed the existence of the so-called ether, a medium for transporting these waves. It was the young Albert Einstein who in 1905 put an end to the ether, by formulating his theory of electrodynamics of moving bodies and came up with a new theory: The Special Theory of Relativity (later became the General Theory of Relativity, taking gravitation into account).
Accordingly, all physical laws apply in all unaccelerated reference systems. Everything is relative and there is no special medium. Space and time are interconnected. The special thing about the Maxwell equations was that Einstein could use them for his relativistic electrodynamics, although the relationship between magnetism and charge distributions, due to relativistic effects was not yet known to Maxwell himself.