You searched for: “electromagnetism
electromagnetism, EM (s) (noun) (no plural form)
1. The magnetic field around a wire or other conductor when, and only when, current passes through it: "Electromagnetism consists of electric fields and magnetic fields and both fields are simply different aspects of electromagnetism, and so they are intrinsically related because a changing electric field generates a magnetic field; and a changing magnetic field generates an electric field."
2. The branch of physics dealing with the observations and laws relating electricity to magnetism, and with magnetism produced by an electric current: "The environmental electromagnetism indicates not only the fact that we live our lives in a constant state of bombardment of electromagnetism, but also that all of the energy from all of the collective devices in use in the world today, is currently going to waste."
3. Magnetism produced by a current of electricity: "Electromagnetism is all around us because in addition to natural sources; such as lightning, it's also given off by every electronic gadget, device, or machine that people make."
4. The interaction between magnetism and electricity, and the phenomena produced by this interaction and the scientific study and applications of such observable events: "Electricity and magnetism were long thought to be separate forces until the work of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell showed that the phenomena associated with lightning and magnets were both caused by electromagnetism which is considered to be one of the four fundamental forces of nature."

The effects of electromagnetism include the "static" forces that electric charges and currents exert on one another, the radio waves we depend upon for much of worldwide communication, the light we see by, and, at the highest energies, the gamma rays generated in stars and particle accelerators.

—Arno Penzias, Vice President,
Research AT&T Bell Laboratories Nobel Laureate in Physics;
Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology;
Academic Press; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers;
New York; 1992; page 726.
This entry is located in the following units: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 43) -ism, -ismus (page 19)