Text: "Electrodynamics in a dispersive medium: E, B, D, and H." Neither the field D nor any other internal field is measurable. It is questionable whether it is possible to formulate the electrodynamics of a continuous medium in terms of observable fields. Summarizes insight into this question, and summarizes the various formulations of the electrodynamics of a continuous medium. The plasma method hypothesizes a material medium with sources and an external field which acts through those sources to induce currents and charge densities and associated electromagnetic fields in the medium. These internal fields, however, do not interact back with the external fields and sources. American Journal of Physics. 52(1), Jan. 1984. p. 27-34.

See Also: electrodynamics, continuous media, electromagnetic fields, observables, foundations of physics, plasma physics, Maxwell's equations.

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