Talk:Charge (physics)

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"Moving electric charges generate radio waves." ??? What is this about? Virtual photons? Surely only acclerating electric charges radiate real photons (which in some situations may be considered to be radio waves). I've removed the offending sentence. If it is justified then it needs clarification. JimChampion 16:39, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

'Gilbert defined charge as some thing which when possessed by a body (object) enables it to respond to the electric field and exert electric force' Is this really true? Did Gilbert already have a concept of electric force and field?

[edit] Are wikipedia's science articles getting too complicated and technical?

I think some of Wikipedia’s science articles are too complicated. Articles need to be written with the intended audience in mind. Hence, this article about “charge” (in physics) would presumably be for people wanting to learn what a “charge” is. Particle physics gurus would therefore not be the intended audience of this article, as they would already know what a “charge” is. But if you read the opening few paragraphs of the article below, I believe it would take a particle physics guru to understand it. Why aren’t we writing science articles with the intended audience in mind?

Opening paragraphs from Wikipedia’s article on “charge” (physics):

"In physics, a charge may refer to one of many different quantities, such as the electric charge in electromagnetism or the color charge in quantum chromodynamics. Charges are associated with conserved quantum numbers.

More abstractly, a charge is any generator of a continuous symmetry of the physical system under study. When a physical system has a symmetry of some sort, Noether's theorem implies the existence of a conserved current. The thing that "flows" in the current is the "charge", the charge is the generator of the (local) symmetry group. This charge is sometimes called the Noether charge.

Thus, for example, the electric charge is the generator of the U(1) symmetry of electromagnetism. The conserved current is the electric current."

Do we honestly think there are people out there that don't know what a charge is, but do understand "Color charge in quantum chromodynamics", "conserved quantum numbers", "Noether's theorem", "local symmetry group", "the U(1) symmetry of electromagnetism"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.161.126 (talk) 05:33, 1 March 2008 (UTC)