When Charge Conservation Attacks

The professor hands over what looks like a simple assignment, but then BAM—it's the continuity equation for charge conservation: ∇·J = -∂ρ/∂t. That face in the middle panels says it all! This equation basically states that electric charge can't be created or destroyed (only moved around), but trying to solve problems with it feels like trying to explain quantum mechanics to your cat. The student's progression from confidence to existential crisis is the physics equivalent of ordering "just a light salad" and receiving a 17-course molecular gastronomy experiment. Every electrodynamics student has had this exact moment when Maxwell's equations stop being theoretical and start getting personal.