This is the first biography in twenty years of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest scientists of our time and yet a man relatively unknown to the wider public. Approaching science with a freshness unbound by convention or previous expectations, he produced some of the most original scientific thinking of the nineteenth century -- and his discoveries went on to shape the twentieth century.
Autorentext
Basil Mahon is a former officer in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and a graduate in Engineering. He is a retired Government Civil Servant and ran the 1991 census in England and Wales.
He has a long-time passion for the physical sciences and has for many years been fascinated by the impact that Maxwell has had on all our lives.
Klappentext
"Since Maxwell's time, physical reality has been thought of as represented by continuous fields, and not capable of any mechanical interpretation. This change in the conception of reality is the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton."
Albert Einstein
"He is easily, to physicists, the most magical figure of the nineteenth century."
Times Literary Supplement
Inhalt
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Chronology: principal events in Maxwell's life.
Cast of characters: Maxwell's relations and close friends.
Introduction.
1. A country boy: Glenlair 1831-1841.
2. Pins and string: Edinburgh Academy 1841-1847.
3. Philosophy: Edinburgh University 1847-1850
4. Learning to juggle: Cambridge 1850-1854.
5. Blue and yellow make pink: Cambridge 1854-1856.
6. Saturn and statistics: Aberdeen 1856-1860.
7. Spinning cells: London 1860-1862.
8. The beautiful equations: London 1862-1865.
9. The Laird at home: Glenlair 1865-1870.
10. The Cavendish: Cambridge 1870-1879.
11. Last days.
12. Maxwell's legacy.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.