ABSTRACT
The Maxwell-Lorentz system of equations, provides a microscopic description of electromagnetic phenomena, at the classical level, ranging from the simplest two-particle system to the detailed behavior of all particles in a macroscopic system. The resulting macroscopic electrodynamics is a phenomenological theory, by which is meant a theory that operates at the level of the phenomena being correlated and predicted, while maintaining the possibility of contact with a more fundamental theory—here, microscopic electrodynamics—that operates at a deeper level. That contact exists to the extent that the macroscopic measurements can be considered to be averages, over very many atoms, of the results of hypothetical microscopic measurements.
