The role of the potentials in electromagnetism

There are two conflicting views about electromagnetic phenomena. The first is based on the action between stationary and moving particles of electric charge and the second on energy distributions in electric and magnetic fiel ds. The difference between these approaches is seen most clearly in the rol es assigned to the potentials. According to the particle view the potential s convey the force from one particle to another, whereas in the field appro ach the potentials are system parameters related to the field energy. The a rticle compares the two views and concludes that the particle view faces im possible difficulties because it ascribes local significance to quantities which are unobservable and conflicts with the quantum-mechanical understand ing of charge as a statistical distribution.