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MIT IAP Animating New Physics Day 1: Derive Maxwell and More

1,924 views · Published 29 January 2011 · 1:48:24 · Indexed 18 October 2026

Channel: Doug Sweetser · 2011 · Science & Technology

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Please see the "GEM Blog: GEM Unification Rescinded, Officially" video.

This hour and 48 minute video has a tidal wave of math.  The torrent of partial differential equations is required to derive the Maxwell equations the "proper" way, from its Lagrange density.  Even by MIT standards, this talk was over the top.

Tell God what to say using high school math (can you factor B2 - E2?) packaged in an old and unfamiliar way known as quaternions. Applying the Euler-Lagrange equations to this Lagrangian (about as tough as a Sudoku puzzle), the Maxwell equations will be derived. The derivation will be repeated with an even less popular rule for spacetime multiplication, one with no minus signs at all, leading to field equations for gravity. Combine these two, and the result unifies gravity with the other three forces of Nature but without the Higgs. The Lagrangian and field equations all fit on a t-shirt.

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