"I have in my "Recent Researches on Electricity and Magnetism" calculated the amount of momentum at any point in the electric field, and have shown that if N is the number of Faraday tubes passing through a unit area drawn at right angles to the direction, B the magnetic induction, θ the angle between the induction and the Faraday tubes, then the momentum per unit volume is equal to N B sin θ, the direction of the momentum being at right angles to the magnetic induction and also to the Faraday tubes. Many of you will notice that the momentum is parallel to what is known as Poynting's vector—the vector whose direction gives the direction in which energy is flowing through the field."
Poynting vector

January 1, 1970

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Original Language: English

Sources

J. J. Thomson, (quote from p. 25)

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poynting_vector