The Displacement current reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Displacement current

Displacement current is a pseudocurrent invented in 1865 by James Maxwell when formulating what is today known as Maxwell's equations. A displacement current flowing through a real medium can be thought of as an elastic response which a material has to an applied electric field. As the electric field is increased, the displacement current is stored in the material, and when the electric field is decreased the material releases the displacement current. A perfect dielectric is a material that shows displacement current only, so it stores and returns electrical energy as if it were an ideal 'battery'. Displacement current is not a current of electric charges, but rather a changing electric flux, which like motion of charges, can produce a magnetic field. It is defined as

The corresponding current density can be found by setting the electric flux to &Phi_E = EA, and inserting into j_D = i_D/A to get

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