ABSTRACT
When we considered electrostatics in the previous chapter, we started with the force between isolated point charges. This introduced us to the ideas of flux density and electric field strength. Now that we are considering magnetism, we can also start at the same point – isolated north or south monopoles – and Section 3.1 develops some basic ideas based around this concept. However, no one has yet found isolated magnetic poles and so we will quickly encounter the magnetic field generated by a current-carrying elemental wire in Section 3.2 – hence the term electromagnetism. Once we have grasped this idea, we will leave magnetic monopoles behind. (Of course, if someone does find magnetic monopoles, we will have to rewrite all the textbooks – this one included!)
