The pedagogical value of the four-dimensional picture II: Another way of looking at the electromagnetic field

Abstract

The concept of electromagnetic field can be neatly formulated by recognizing that the simplest form of the four-force is indeed feasible. We show that Maxwell's equations almost entirely stem from the properties of spacetime, notably from the fact that our world has dimension d = 4. Their complete reconstruction requires three additional assumptions which are seemingly divorced from geometry, but, actually, may have much to do with the spacetime properties.