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You can only calculate electric fields or magnetic fields after fixing a reference frame, so no, you can't move P around in that formula. It is assumed in that formula that you are working in a specific frame. The formula is invariant with respect to translating both $\mathbf{r}$ and $P$ by the same displacement, but not with respect to boosting them by the ...

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The idea is that it takes time for a signal to travel from a source to where it is being observed--so the field here and now doesn't depend on the charge distribution now, it depends on the value that the charge distribution had $t - \frac{\ell}{c}$ ago, since information cannot travel instantaneously.

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This is the usual argument for explaining retarded time - Consider a charge moving with a constant velocity along a straight line. If the charge suddenly comes to a halt, there will be a change in the electric field due to the acceleration. But this change in the electric field isn't communicated instantaneously through the whole universe, that's ...

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Actually since charge is at rest $u_{\nu}r^{\nu} = u_0 r^0 = ct'$ where $t'$ is retarded time, $t'=r/c$, where $r$ is the (constant) distance to the charge.

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Radar uses the principle of retarded time to calculate distances Since $x=ct$, $dx =c dt$! Define $dx=x_1-x_2$. If $x_1$ - radar location and $x_2$ -target location, $dt=dx/c=(x1-x2)/dt$ where $dt$ is the time required to travel to target! So round trip time $=2 dt$ which is recorded by electronic clocks. This is an example of retarded time not special ...

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The short answer: it isn't absent, it is only absent classically, and then only for certain initial conditions. This is the old (and nowadays solved) puzzle of the electromagnetic arrow of time, which was a subject of a three-opinion paper in the early 20th century, with Einstein expressing the correct opinion, and two other people expressing other ...

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There is no obvious inconsistency, whether we use retarded, advanced, or any other field. If we use only retarded fields, things go as follows. At the time $t=0$, we begin to exert force $\mathbf{F}$ on the charge $q$. It will move with acceleration $\mathbf{F}/m$ for the time interval $R/c$, where $R$ is the radius of the sphere. At the time $t = R/c$, ...

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