Faraday's law[edit]

Main article: Faraday's law of induction

In a geomagnetic storm, a surge in the flux of charged particles temporarily alters Earth's magnetic field, which
induces electric fields in Earth's atmosphere, thus causing surges in electrical power grids. (Not to scale.)
The Maxwell–Faraday version of Faraday's law of induction describes how a time-varying magnetic
field corresponds to curl of an electric field.[3] In integral form, it states that the work per unit charge
required to move a charge around a closed loop equals the rate of change of the magnetic flux
through the enclosed surface.
The electromagnetic induction is the operating principle behind many electric generators: for
example, a rotating bar magnet creates a changing magnetic field and generates an electric field in a
nearby wire.

Ampère's law with Maxwell's addition[edit]

Main article: Ampère's circuital law

Magnetic-core memory (1954) is an application of Ampère's law. Each core stores one bit of data.

The original law of Ampère states that magnetic fields relate to electric current. Maxwell's
addition states that they also relate to changing electric fields, which Maxwell called displacement
current. The integral form states that electric and displacement currents are associated with a
proportional magnetic field along any enclosing curve.
Maxwell's addition to Ampère's law is important because the laws of Ampère and Gauss must
otherwise be adjusted for static fields. [4][clarification needed] As a consequence, it predicts that a rotating
magnetic field occurs with a changing electric field. [3][5] A further consequence is the existence of self-
sustaining electromagnetic waves which travel through empty space.
The speed calculated for electromagnetic waves, which could be predicted from experiments on
charges and currents,[note 4] matches the speed of light; indeed, light is one form of electromagnetic
radiation (as are X-rays, radio waves, and others). Maxwell understood the connection between
electromagnetic waves and light in 1861, thereby unifying the theories
of electromagnetism and optics.