James Clerk Maxwell Biography: History of Maxwell's Equations
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- Опубликовано: 25 июн 2024
- What are Maxwell's equations, why are they important and why were they created in the first place? Meet a charming Scotsman, his scientist wife and their important interactions with a young Lord Kelvin and an aging Michael Faraday.
The music was created by the lovely Kim Nalley. 
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I have always felt that tying these developmental ideas together historically is the best way to teach them. It gives human context, then the detail, however correct, is more readily understandable and can be appreciated more clearly. Great work Kathy.
DavidMcKay77 obviously, I agree 💯
Correct. Most teaching is done without much of the human interest stories and that results in very dry material. This contributes to many subjects being seen as boring.
Stokes therom, " like and irish potatoe with eyes coming out all over"
Dr. Donald W Detes senior level EM class NMSU 1974
Context is super important and the tight curriculum schedules always mean we never get to hear about them in traditional classes
Science history is a lot more interesting than being told how many concubines a useless king had.
I am completely hypnotized by Kathy as I am now binge watching this series
All part of my evil plan. Bwa ha ha
A few notes on Maxwell's time in Aberdeen from an Aberdonian! First, locals pronounce Marischal College as "Marshall College", i.e. it's just an older spelling of the same word. The name comes from the college being founded in the 1500s by an "Earl Marischal of Scotland" (think military governor, not a policeman!). Maxwell had the chair of Natural Philosphy there between 1856-1860. In 1860 Marischal College merged with Kings College to create the University of Aberdeen, which now had one physics professor too many. Kings had a well connected prof that nobody now remembers, while Marischal College had the gifted but very young Maxwell... so they got rid of Maxwell! It was while in Aberdeen that Maxwell proved that Saturn's rings must be formed from lots of little rocks, rather than a solid band, because the latter's orbit would be unstable. It's a pity that famed SF writer Larry Niven didn't know this when he wrote his novel _Ringworld_, because he then had to write a sequel explaining that the Ringworld needed rocket motors to keep it in orbit!
Speaking of pronunciation, Maxwell's middle name is spoken "Clark" (as in Lewis and Clark).
"she has no statue" 😢
"I suppose I can stay up that late" made me laugh out loud; I'm quite a night owl myself. Kathy, this series is just great! Very clear and informative, and fun too.
I'm glad to see Oliver Heaviside getting some credit, and there's a lot more to him than being a pioneer in vector calculus. He was instrumental in what was to the founding of telecommunication theory. However, he was also very strange and eccentric and was never part of the science establishment. He was also, coincidentally, a nephew of Sir Charles Wheatstone, but only by the latter's marriage to his aunt. In his way, he was a more important figure than Tesla and certainly a much better mathematician.
Can I correctly say that Tesla was not so much a scientist as he was an engineer? ... and a great one at that...?
@@joebrannon7548 He was, indeed a pioneering electrical engineer, but when it came to broadcasting power he went outside his area of expertise and he had some truly bizarre ideas abut physics.
@@joebrannon7548 both, both - an experimenting electrical engineer. He saw purpose in devices and 'upgraded' them as an engineer would, his imagination brought many real theories as a scientist would, but understanding the frequencies of alternating current is where his genius lies
No question that Heaviside was brilliant. He boiled Maxwell's twenty equations down to four using simplified vector notation. However, the act of separating the full product into dot and cross products may have been a mistake, a mistake which has delayed a deeper understanding of the physical space in which we live. What is a 'scalar' quantity? A quantity which has magnitude only, no direction. But perceived from the perspective of a four-dimensional space, it does indeed have direction - along the real axis.
It's curious that our three-dimensional space exactly corresponds to the 'imaginary' part of Hamilton's quaternion space. Sort of makes you ponder that our space is a mind world.
Everything has history. History makes physics more interesting and real.
Ramana I Obviously agree with you hundred percent. Actually been surprised by how much studying the history has deepened my understanding of the physics.
Hi Kathy: I am an electrical engineer (5 year degree) and I enjoy so much your videos. Of course I love, enjoy and very often use Maxwells equations and of course I can repeat them by heart. I want to tell you a professional secret: Maxwells equations are, really only three because, given the two curl equations and adopting as true the conservation of the charge (Div J=-d rho/dt) you get the two divergence ecuations. Continue your great videos
This series is so amazing, I have no words for it! I cant imagine how tough it is to really understand the history of so many decades and so many people, across so many conceptual topics.... and summarize into concise bite sized content which still retains the crux of the matter and the essential links across people and events. Amazed! I wish PBS or someone made a video documentary (they made many) with this content specifically.
Brilliant work kathy, you've pitched it at exactly the right level for an amateur physics fan like me. I could listen to you for hours,you make it entertaining and informative, with lots of history and the human element thrown in too. Many thanks from Yorkshire, England.
I wish my physics professors had had more historical stuff. It would have enhanced understanding a lot. Excellent videos. Thanks!
They are generally far more excited by the actual physics than the people who discovered them, thier struggles, eureka moments, triumphs, set backs, love stories, friendships, scholarships, etc. That is why and how they become physics professors.
Meanwhile the lesser dolts like Faraday who avoided mathematics, and Edison,who was not very good at math either but repeated for himself EVERY SINGLE EXPERIMENT that Faraday did and wrote about, go on to invent and discover great things, to the indefatigable irritation of physics professors.
Faraday was in no sense a “dolt”. He was a highly gifted experimenter. Without the wealth of data he collected, Maxwell would have had little or nothing to work on.
Edison ... yeah ...
Physics is math, history is humanities. I would have loved to have these lectures in High school physics because I don't have the math aptitude needed for actual physics but I love history.
The first time I got the complete story!
Thanks Kathy!
These videos are an absolute gem! It's for sure one of the best ways to get someone intrigued by science that I have come across.
Excellent presentation. Years ago I read the book 'The Maxwellians'. Great book to read on long flights.
It so great to get all the bibliographical information with each of these stories of discovery! The scientists themselves become so much more human.
Charles Carlson you can probably tell the folks I like (Faraday, Maxwell) and ones I don’t (Morse)
One of the delightful things that I’ve noticed with Kathy’s excellent presentations is that she presents a picture of her subjects, as they would have appeared at the time under discussion. Which really adds a lo5 of context!
A good effort. I was surprised not to hear the word 'quaternions' or J.W. Gibbs mentioned. Maxwell corresponded with Gibbs mainly regarding thermodynamics but in the Vector Algebra War, it was Gibbs that influenced Heaviside and whose reformulation of quaternion math became the vector algebra taught at Universities. I would be interested in seeing a video on the history of the Maxwell Equation from its inception to 2022; from those first 20 equations, use of quaternions by Maxwell and then scalar equations, Lorentz microscopic statistical formulation, 4 vector equations and after the life of Maxwell to differential and integral versions, tensor version, differential forms version and single equation of the Geometric Algebra formalism of David Hestenes.
I love the history lesson. But i would also love if Kathy would explain more on the physics and maths! Thanks for your video!!
"I suppose I could stay up that late."
My own preferred method of making early morning appointments.
I love the way all these famous scientists are linked and BIG thank you for bringing them back to life. 😘
These vids are wonderful I don't know how I missed them when they were made..
What an excellent report!
Heavyside, with a High School education, created Maxwell's equations.
A true math genius also.
Otie Brown Heavysude was such an interesting fellow and he is on my list of people to make a video about ... eventually.
Common, Maxwell created his equations. This is just another simpler notation.
@@joshicune It's a bit more than than a simpler notation, as it's a reformulation and the Heaviside vector calculus versions aren't exactly equivalent and are explicitly rotationally invariant. The Heaviside version is a lot easier to amend to be consistent with quantum mechanics and have also influenced the way that Maxwell's equations are interpreted.
nb. this was not the first reformulation, as Maxwell's equations had been previously expressed in terms of quaternions.
Maxwell, Clerk-Maxwell, was a very talented mathematician from an early age. I doubt he needed much help with that. What is apparent is that he was very appreciative of the experimental processes and insights, whether from his wife or from Faraday.
P.s.
You can visit his home in Edinburgh with an appointment. There is more to see than the castle.
incredible how humanly beautiful all of these colorful geniuses were❤❤❤❤
Maxwell's work in Statistical Thermodynamics alone (A subject he developed & pioneered), would've been enough to put him down as one of the greats of mathematics/physics. Just to confuse things, Maxwell also has another set of relations in thermodynamics known as Maxwell's Relations.
It is said that his work in Thermodynamics helped him derive the theory of the electromagnetic field.
Good Day, Kathy. Thank you so much for your videos. Just discovered your channel yesterday and am binging, you wicked woman! More, please, and thank you for the encouragement.
One of my favourite channels on RUclips. Kathy's narrative style is so compelling and engaging.
Aww thanks.
Thanks for your lucid explanations, Kathy. I was thinking that another angle to look at could be 'The History of C', i.e, how various scientists through the years have measured the speed of light - and how mathematicians have proved them right. This would bring a panoply of great names from Brahe onwards into the story.
"...named it 'c', probably because they already had an 'a' and a 'b' in their paper" OMG - that is funny!!! Your videos are a recent discovery for me, and I'm loving them! Good stuff!
Thank you so much for this I now understand much better, IT WAS HIS WIFE.
Since discovering your channel my understanding of the world has become so much richer, thanks to you. I find it necessary to watch your videos over and over. You have a wonderful gift for teaching. Looking forward to your book on electricity.
Thank you!
What a wonderful episode ! Thanks !!
I love Maxwell - I have an autographed letter to a doctor by Maxwell requesting a visit to his wife.
one of the many geniuses of this channel is the use of accurate images. even showing mercury when referencing faraday’s mercury poisoning 😢. ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Ahhhh, James Clerk Maxwell, my all time favorite physicist.
The beauty of Maxwell's equations, (first equations to survive special relativity), must have made many, many students fall in love with physics.
And Faraday, what a great experimentalist!
Thanks for doing a piece on both.
They used to call themselves Maxwellians.
His equations not only survived special relativity, they contained a pointer to it, with that _c_ term, the speed of propagation, not being relative to anything, the way linear motion must be according to Newtonian relativity.
Another triumph, Kathy! This video is a great tribute to James Maxwell. Thanks!
Faraday is one of my heroes; thank you so much for this clarification of his accomplishments and place in history! Really your’s is one of the very best physics channels on RUclips! 😊
This is a brilliant series thank you Kathy
My favourite scientist by far. For those interested in the person, there is an excellent biography "The Man who Changed Everything, James Clerk Maxwell", published about 15 years ago. He grew-up in rural South-West Scotland and when he was sent to school in Edinburgh, his class-mates called him "Dafty" because of his simple ways and clothes. Second-hand copies of the book can be bought on-line for just a few £. Sadly, he is not well known in his native Scotland. One has to wonder why.
I also find it strange why he is not that well known or mentioned in Scotland, but I guess him having been a devoted Christian is rather problematic.
Another great video. Thank you.
One of your best videos ever. I'm binge watching.
As just someone interested in learning more about physics I really like your videos. You are a great teacher!
Just discovered your channel - and am hooked! Superb concise histories of Science's most important personalities. Your material ought to be compulsory viewing in all high schools - whether the students are studying science or not. I wish I had had a teacher like you Kathy - you're a gem and an asset to the global science community.
Loved your video and subscribed! To me one of the most astonishing of scientific achievements was Maxwell's derivation of the speed of light strictly out of his equations alone. On par maybe with Dirac's postulation of antimatter based solely on the mathematics of his equations. I look forward to watching more of your work!
Shouting From The Rooftops so glad you liked it. I was so delighted to find how charming Maxwell was.
Exactly the channel im looking for, can’t wait to dig deeper
Welcome aboard!
I am so glad that to have finally discovered your channel! As a lifelong and now retired EE, I so enjoy the historical side of electronics and electricity. BTW if you like this video you'll like the book Faraday, Maxwell and the electromagnetic field.
Dave Erickson
This is guy is one of my heroes. And he seems to famous here in the US that there is a coffee brand named after him.
The equations shown in the video background are not the original Maxwell Equations, but are a reformulated version written in modern vector notation.
I absolutely love your delivery and your subject selection.
I can't argue with Feynman's view of the importance of Maxwell's Equations. As a physics grad student, I heard them rightly called the first successful unified field theory.
Fred
I'm in an intermediate e&m class and the history of physics is really interesting. I also have a book called "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field" on my shelf, should get to reading.
Victor P. That’s a good book. I recommend it I’m writing a book myself but it is in publishing purgatory so I don’t know when you could read it.
Reflecting on my time studying electrodynamics, even years later, I still feel somewhat in awe of the beauty of Maxwell's equations, despite never fully comprehending their technicalities. Though I struggled to fully understand their meaning and application, there was a certain elegance and symmetry in their formulation that I found captivating. Even without a complete understanding, the equations hinted at a deep interconnectedness in the workings of the universe, which inspired a sense of wonder within me. Looking back, I realize that my fascination with the beauty of the equations was perhaps more important than my incomplete grasp of their technical details.
Fascinating! Your historical background on scientific discoveries and principles, on the human beings behind them, is excellent, thanks for your efforts.
Faraday described "Tubes of Force", and it is Maxwell who changed that into "Lines of force" which is why the math for his electromagnetic theory is so complicated. Faraday's version is a lot simpler, though not mathematical much like Feynman diagrams are to quantum/particle theory, which is only accepted because you didn't argue with Feynman who was himself a better physicist and just-as-good mathematician than/as Maxwell and William Thompson.
The Original Cinderella Man
Michael Faraday was not part of the establishment and didn't have the credentials to be what the cognoscenti decide is what makes a "scientist".
But without his intuition and brilliant observations and experimental work and detailed notes and his very open Nature (He refused bribes worth millions) James Maxwell and William Thompson (among others) would just be footnotes in history.
Physics/chemistry/mathematics, in those days, were more like nationalistic pastimes and without these guys working that way, we wouldn't of had the Great War and World War II.
If the scientist had conducted themselves like Faraday, things would have had time to settle down, which is why, in my opinion, he was a thousand times the scientist than these guys were.
He is the gold/platinum standard for the meaning of the life of being a scientist.
Faraday and Maxwell are my favorites.
I just like magnets and sparks.
History of Physics. Awesome video 👍
What a wonderful channel. I’m a 60 year old high school graduate with a strong desire for more knowledge. Your videos help educate me in many ways. New subscriber! Thank you so very much.
It's been a honor to be nicknamed Maxwell by my Ceylonese HS Physics teacher. But in no way can in stand in Maxwell's shoes.:)
Wow Kathy: I never saw the quote before of Einstein saying he stood on Maxwell's equations because I have been saying this for 50 years and the quote of Einstein I know was, I stood on the shoulders of giants to reach my theory. I saw and recognized he was following Maxwell's equations for the last 50 years and did not know he actually said this. Maxwell's equations pop out of Einstein's work on the structure of space/time. What is difficult for me is where James pulled these from which was Newton's work thesis. What I had heard was James erased his early work to only show the final theorem thus we have difficulty following his thought process. With Einstein he first builds the photo-electric effect thus producing the basis of quantum mechanics before he wrote his general relativity theory. Good job lady.
"It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state..." (A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 1873) - James Clerk Maxwell
Alex Peek I’m starting to think that Maxwell fellow was pretty smart.
I am loving the whole series. I wish someone did a similar thing for maths as well.
Great story! I can see that you are really passionate about it and I'd like to thank you for educating us all
I love this!
Thanks for this wonderful video!
hank s you are welcome. Thanks for the great quote in your other comment
Wonderful!
Thanks for this video. I love this sort of stuff. I always wonder if we should really be calling him "Clerk-Maxwell" rather than "Maxwell". As far as I know, he was born with the surname "Clerk" and appended the "Maxwell" as a condition of the inheritance of his country estate, giving him a form of double-barrelled surname. But then everyone refers to "Maxwell's Equations" and not "Clerk Maxwell's Equations" with the former being too well established and the latter too much of a mouthful. Mr C-M is in my eyes the Einstein of the 19th Century and deserves much, much better recognition than he has! 🙂
I have gone back and read how Maxwell developed his theory and it is difficult to say the least. It involved stresses and vortices but was grounded in Faraday's experimental work on lines of force. The modern treatment completely obscures just how astonishing Maxwell's insights were. He was The Man, no doubt about that. A small irony is that Maxwell was second Wrangler, beaten by P G Tait, who although a very good mathematician, never did anything as earth shattering as Maxwell.
Maxwell is my favorite. If I had a son then I would name him Maxwell 😍
I have been searching for contents like this 😃
Excellent!!
Thanks for all the work you do on your instructional videos, especially this one. I would love similar video on the history of the "discovery" of permeability and permittivity...
combination of physics theory and history background story, very unique channel. like it!
Thanks Kathy. I studied math for three years and once knew what Maxwell's equations meant but my understanding has gone the way of my rock climbing ability
WOW !!! Love it Love it.
Kathy you're interesting, that's it; just plain interesting in a very VERY cool way. Thank you for your insightful research into a confusing time in history. Thank you
unbelievable ❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you.
Thanks for your video i so much enjoyed watching it.
This is the video that found me this great series! I was trying to figure out how Maxwell figures out such an accurate estimation of the speed of light.
I used to wonder that too. So glad I started with Faraday first as I don't think he would make that much sense without it.
Informative.. Thanks
Moncy Varghese Kottayam you are welcome. Wasn’t Maxwell charming? He is one of my favorites.
This really is the best series since James Burke wrote Connections.
Thanks- what a lovely compliment
Thank you so much for the video. I wish there were longer biography of him. I love that he has statue of him with his dog. Sad that Katherine is not next to him 😢
Maxwell definitely sounds like someone you would like to have a few wee drams with :) - great video!
Oh definitely
tx u so much for this history!!!
Good information. Thanks 🙏🙏🙏🙏
As ever a brilliant video.👍
this is really helpful for undestanding masxwell eqayation
I read and heard Maxwell's stories, they never bored to me, like Einstein's stories. The genius of Maxwell is one generalization of the laws and made theory. In fact, in his book, he wrote "The theory I propose may, therefore, be called a theory of the Electromagnetic Field". Amongst these Maxwell's equation, my favorite part is Displacement current. I hope, Kathy can explain it with her enthusiastic voice.
I love this channel!!!!!!!!!!!!
How lucky! I just watched The History Guy do a video on James Clerk Maxwell! When it finished up pops your video! Of course i watched and then subscribed! Look for me looking over your shoulder!
great video, glad i found this channel :)
Well done, a very underappreciated event in history and science history - Still no really good Biography of Maxwell and his books are hard going due to the old math symbolism and ideas.
My nomination for the greatest practical physicist in history is James Maxwell. Others would have figured it all out eventually, but without those equations radio would have taken a very different path.
These videos should be part of first year college syllabus for several engineering degree programs.
very informative thank you !
Great video
A wonderful series of lectures Kathy, simply superb.
By the way, in the UK, Clerk is pronounced Clark, so his name is pronounced James Clark Maxwell 🙂
Appreciate your efforts 🙏👏👏👏
It's my pleasure
Maxwell felt that Faraday was a mathematician of great ability but did not have the benefit of an education. Big difference from having "no skills."
Thank you for your GREAT educations on Science. (inventor)
Goose bumps “ how maxwell faraday and Helmholtz “ inspired hertzyy