In response to Professor Magnes’ primary question, whether I will be modelling the E/B fields or the forces acting on moving bodies, I intend to do both; in particular I have the opportunity to illustrate the Lorentz covariance if I show the forces acting on the magnet and conductor. As covariance is a bit more challenging a concept than invariance I think this illustration and discussion will be a good teaching tool.

I am also trying to find a way to illustrate the changes in the electromagnetic field one would observe as they moved relative to various objects. Mathematica’s animate command should be aptly suited for this as I could use the t-parameter as a scalable velocity term.

My first and most important goal will be to do a brief write up of the EM inspiration for relativity and accompany this discussion with an illustration of Einstein’s magnet and conductor thought experiment. I intend to have these completed by this upcoming Friday (4/18).

I will spend my weekend looking for the more interesting examples of field transformations I can incorporate into my project and intend to have them animated in my preliminary upload on Tuesday.

I have also come up with a few arbitrarily designed plots of the affect of length contraction on observed charge density which I also intend to have polished up a little bit and incorporated into my preliminary upload as well.