Someone listed this as one of the prerequisites for a detailed understanding of relativity. I think they're trying to make out is it more sophisticated than it really is. I have a basic understanding of relativity and simply don't see the relevance. What do you think?|||I agree with them: it is essential for anything more than a casual aquaintance with relativity. Relativity didn't just come out of nowhere: it was Einstein's solution to contradictions between the theories of Newton (mechanics) and Maxwell (electromagnetism). Since any understanding of Maxwell's Equations begins with Coulomb's law it follows that you need that too.
This is not some esoteric topic that is on the fringes of the theory: it is positively central to a thorough grounding as opposed to a broad-brush popular science understanding. For example, the speed of light is the same for all observers. This is one of the principal starting points for relativity. Why is that the case? Well, Einstein doesn't address that at all, he simply treats it as an established fact. To explain it you need Maxwell.|||Because there's something called relativistic covariance. I don't know all the mathematics behind relativistic covariance with Coulomb's Law (that's why I'm getting a $75 book on the mathematical concepts of quantum mechanics eventually), but I do know that as a charged entity propagates through space and time, relativistic effects have an influence on how we measure certain properties because of inertial mass and time dilation effects. Not only does this relate to Coulomb's Law, relativistic covariance is used in dirac spinors as well and other vector and scalar mathematics.
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