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The IEE Rumbles Catt |
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******************************************************** The 'Catt
anomaly': When a TEM wave travels along a transmission line, there must,
according to conventional theory, be charge distributions on the surfaces of
the conductors behind the wavefront. For a vacuum dielectric the speed of the
wavefront is the speed of light so that, according to Catt, the charges on
the conductors must travel at the speed of light, which is impossible. This
is the 'Catt anomaly'. Since the wavefront does travel at the speed of light,
so do the charges, which then have infinite mass. It follows that there
cannot be charges on the conductor surfaces and conventional theory must be
wrong. The flaw here is the
assumption that the charges move with the wave. whereas in reality they
simply come to the surface as the wave passes, and when it has gone they
recede into the conductor. No individual charge moves with the velocity of
the wave. The charges come to the surface to help the wave go by and then
pass the task to other charges further along the line which are already there
and waiting. This is the mechanism of guidance and containement. There is no
anomaly. – B. Lago |
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************************************************ Review
of my 1994 book Electromagnetism 1 which is at http://www.ivorcatt.com/em.htm Book
Review published in the IEE Journal "Electronics & Communication
Engineering Journal", October 1995, p218. Electromagnetism
1 by Ivor Catt Westfields Press 1994 The
main body of the text is devoted to transmssion lines .... There
are numerous examples of sloppy argument in the text. .... The flaws in these
arguments are easy to see. .... The
author sees an anomaly in the conventional view of the transmission line.
This he calls the 'Catt anomaly' and it is the starting point of his
proposals for an improved theory. The 'Catt anomaly': When a TEM wave travels along a transmission line,
there must, according to conventional theory, be charge distributions on the
surfaces of the conductors behind the wavefront. For a vacuum dielectric the
speed of the wavefront is the speed of light so that, according to Catt, the
charges on the conductors must travel at the speed of light, which is
impossible. This is the 'Catt anomaly'. Since the wavefront does travel at
the speed of light, so do the charges, which then have infinite mass. It
follows that there cannot be charges on the conductor surfaces and
conventional theory must be wrong. The
flaw here is the assumption that the charges move with the wave. whereas in
reality they simply come to the surface as the wave passes, and when it has
gone they recede into the conductor. No individual charge moves with the
velocity of the wave. The charges come to the surface to help the wave go by
and then pass the task to other charges further along the line which are
already there and waiting. This is the mechanism of guidance and
containement. There is no anomaly. But
Catt goes on. Having removed charges from the surfaces of his conductors, he
can no longer apply Gauss's law and the displacement current in the wave has
to go somewhere. Catt's solution is typically ingenious: the current must
continue as displacement current in conductors, which are actually dielectrics
with a very high permittivity; there is no conduction current in conductors -
ever! Catt's Ockham's Razor has been wielded to remove conduction current as
well as electric charge from electromagnetic theory. There is of course the
small problem of a value for the permittivity of copper. Catt is equal to the
challenge .... the permittivity of copper must be extremely large. .... .... It
is significant that, having introduced his new theory and abolished charge
and current ...., he then proceeds to use these concepts quite unashamedly in
the rest of the book. .... There are many other
items in this book which give cause for concern, for example the false
statement that 'The TEM wave has virtually disappeared from today's
electromagnetic theory'. http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/17136.htm http://www.electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/20136.htm http://www.ivorcatt.com/2613.htm Catt's
belief in his own work is clearly sincere, but this reviewer, after lengthy
and careful consideration, can find virtually nothing of value in this book. B. LAGO The
penultimate paragraph echoes Lago's July79 letter in Wireless World attacking
my article "Displacement Current" in Wireless World, Dec78 and
March79; ....
the articles are wrong in almost every detail and it is vital that this
should be clearly demonstrated before undue damage is done. .... May I
suggest that your readers will be well advised to approach the "further
reading" with caution. Lago
has surfaced just twice with his large spanner. I know nothing of him except
that he is at Keele University. -IC feb01 [Also
see A difficulty in electromagnetic theory,
the Lynch / Catt IEE 10july98 paper on my website, given at the IEE Group S7
conference. - IC] My 1994
book Electromagnetism 1 is at http://www.ivorcatt.com/em.htm |