James Clerk Maxwell’s name is not as well known as Newton or Einstein, yet his discoveries were transformative. The History Guy recalls the life of Scottish Scientist James Clerk Maxwell, whom astronomer Carl Sagan said “has done more to shape our civilization than any ten recent presidents and prime ministers.โ
This video was done in collaboration with the channel Arvin Ash: Complex Questions Explained Simply. Check out Arvin’s take on Maxwell’s equations here:
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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Brilliant. And brilliant work by Paramount in the 60s with the Scotty and Kelvin lore when these profound imaginations were even more obscure. On behalf of all Scots, โSlainteโ ๐
Sir you are the โ good professor โ every student dreams he hadโค.
Thank you for this clip. This was a great, humble. gfted professional that in my view deserved more years before transitioning from our midst..
Galileo and Maxwell deserve posthumous Nobel. There are many other greats but these two were the most prominent at the turning points in the evolution of physics pre modernity.
James Clarke Maxwell is a brilliant physicist contributed so much to the world and is not discussed or well known as other scientists because he died at 48 years old and was unable to complete his works. Einstein picks up were he left off and this leads to The Theory of Relativity E=mc2!!!๐ณ๐ณ๐ณ
James Clerk Maxwell undoubtedly the number one name in physics , revered by such notables as Einstein.
Great video of a great man. Tks James Maxwell.
He formed tha mathwmatial structure of electromagnetism which Faraday wasn't able to do
to me?
Maxwell is a god!…not like the countless others
Maxwell's equations were developed by many physicists who have their name on their equations: Gauss, Faraday, Ampere. Maxwell only added the displacement current to Ampere's law. But with this one final piece, Maxwell was able to show that EM fields propagate as a wave at approximately approxmately speed c. But the equations were not clearly stated as there are known today and involved 20 coupled equations, and this was later simplified by Heaviside who summarized the theory in 4 equations. But Maxwell incorrectly set the wave equation equal to zero, which is not valid when sources create light. Heaviside corrected this by setting the wave equation to a source and solving the resultant inhomogeneous partial differential equation. This revealed that the EM fields propagate non linearly in the nearfield and only approximately linearly in the farfield. Recently it was shown that the consequence is that speed of the fields are instantaneous in the nearfield and reduces to the speed of light in the farfield, about 1 wavelength from the source. This has recently been confirmed experimentally by several independent researchers. This corresponds the phase speed, group speed, and information speed.
Any theory assuming the speed of light is a constant, such as Special Relativity and General Relativity are wrong, and it has implications to Quantum theories as well. So this fact about the speed of light affects all of Modern Physics. Often it is stated that Relativity has been verified by so many experiments, how can it be wrong. Well no experiment can prove a theory, and can only provide evidence that a theory is correct. But one experiment can absolutely disprove a theory,ย and the new speed of light experiments proving the speed of light is not a constant is such a proof. So what does it mean? Well a derivation of Relativity using instantaneous nearfield light yields Galilean Relativity. This can easily seen by inserting c=infinity into the Lorentz Transform, yielding the GalileanTransform, where time is the same in all inertial frames. So a moving object observed with instantaneous nearfield light will yield no Relativistic effects, whereas by changing the frequency of the light such that farfield light is used will observe Relativistic effects. But since time and space are real and independent of the frequency of light used to measure its effects, then one must conclude the effects of Relativity are just an optical illusion.
Since General Relativity is based on Special Relativity, then it has the same problem. A better theory of Gravity is Gravitoelectromagnetism which assumes gravity can be mathematically described by 4 Maxwell equations, similar to to those of electromagnetic theory. It is well known that General Relativity reduces to Gravitoelectromagnetism for weak fields, which is all that we observe. Using this theory, analysis of an oscillating mass yields a wave equation set equal to a source term. Analysis of this equation shows that the phase speed, group speed, and information speed are instantaneous in the nearfield and reduce to the speed of light in the farfield. This theory then accounts for all the observed gravitational effects including instantaneous nearfield and the speed of light farfield. The main difference is that this theory is a field theory, and not a geometrical theory like General Relativity. Because it is a field theory, Gravity can be then be quantized as the Graviton.
Lastly it should be mentioned that this research shows that the Pilot Wave interpretation of Quantum Mechanics can no longer be criticized for requiring instantaneous interaction of the pilot wave, thereby violating Relativity.ย It should also be noted that nearfield electromagnetic fields can be explained by quantum mechanics using the Pilot Wave interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (HUP), where ฮx and ฮp are interpreted as averages, and not the uncertainty in the values as in other interpretations of quantum mechanics. So in HUP: ฮx ฮp = h, where ฮp=mฮv, and m is an effective mass due to momentum, thus HUP becomes: ฮx ฮv = h/m.ย In the nearfield where the field is created, ฮx=0, therefore ฮv=infinity. In the farfield, HUP: ฮx ฮp = h, where p = h/ฮป. HUP then becomes: ฮxย h/ฮป = h, or ฮx=ฮป. Also in the farfield HUP becomes: ฮปmฮv=h, thus ฮv=h/(mฮป). Since p=h/ฮป, then ฮv=p/m. Also since p=mc, then ฮv=c. So in summary, in the nearfield ฮv=infinity, and in the farfieldย ฮv=c, where ฮv is the average velocity of the photon according to Pilot Wave theory. Consequently the Pilot wave interpretation should become the preferred interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. It should also be noted that this argument can be applied to all fields, including the graviton. Hence all fields should exhibit instantaneous nearfield and speed c farfield behavior, and this can explain the non-local effects observed in quantum entangled particles.
*YouTube presentation of above arguments:ย https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sePdJ7vSQvQ&t=0sย
*More extensive paper for the above arguments: William D. Walker and Dag Stranneby, A New Interpretation of Relativity, 2023:ย http://vixra.org/abs/2309.0145
*Electromagnetic pulse experiment paper:ย https://www.techrxiv.org/doi/full/10.36227/techrxiv.170862178.82175798/v1
Dr. William Walker – PhD in physics from ETH Zurich, 1997
Absolute legend. Put Scotland on the map or at least a colour photo of a map haha
Very well presented. Articulate and with affection and love. I wonder if there is a physicist hidden (not very well) in the History Guy. Maxwell was certainly a giant.
Scottish physicists are the best, check out William Thomson, AKA Lord Kelvin.
What a nice presentation … thank you! I hope you will cover other scientists … Hilbert, Schottky, Hertz, etc.
I attended the unveiling/inauguration of the Royal Society's statue of Clerk-Maxwell in Edinburgh. There were very few people there. Even today, few people give it a second glance. It's a shame that he isn't better recognised for his many achievements.
Is pronounced Clark not Clerk. ๐๐ป
Faraday was a brilliant scientist despite being poorly educated. He lacked the mathematical knowledge that Maxwell brought to Faraday's work, which was instrumental to the development of Maxwell's theory.
It's spelled "Clerk" but it's pronounced "Clark."
I attended the Edinburgh Academy. Even there he was rarely mentioned.
Nice! More history of science, please.
I am a Maxwell fan.
He died prematurely, if he had survived to an older age it could well be the discoveries of Hertz and Einstein may have been unveiled three decades earlier, possibly changing the course of history.
I think Maxwell may have been the smartest man who ever lived. (Even including Einstein, who admired Maxwell more than any other scientist).
Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)
Maxwell is only unknown to non scientific folk, it's the same as with Lemaitre….
Thank you sir. โค
Having circular rings rotating with coil copper magnetic revolution will not evad it will Excell
Psalm 119:99-100 "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts." "By the age of 8 he was quoting Milton and large chunks of the Book of Psalms 1:30 – 1:34. It's not a coincidence folks.
I hear u thank you
I guess he accomplished his goals with grace and humility.
JCM is the goat. He and many others that followed give me great strength of physics and curiosity. Ty
At the last Doors Open Day (when various places in the city allow visitors in), I was lucky enough to have a tour of Maxwell's family home in the Georgian-era New Town in Edinburgh (about 5 mins from the family home of Robert Louis Stevenson). A statue of Maxwell sit at the east end of George Street in the New Town
7:47 – The "dumbing down" of the 20 Maxwells equations (in quaternions) to four equations was accomplished by one Oliver Heaviside… the "Heaviside Layer" from the musical "Cats"…
Great Legend ever.
Well done! The best short presentation of Maxwell I have seen. Thank you!
I knew who Maxwell was before I heards Newton's name but I am from Sxotland so…
Maxeell was the most important physicist โ after Isaac Newton โ in History!!
Even more relevant than the much aggrandized Albert Einstein.
Might be the greatest scientist of all time.
Maxwell was so brilliant and he wrote poetry too. He had alot of English poetry memorized. He very devoted to his wife also!!
There's a you tube that explains the real reason why light bends as it crosses two mediums. Its really because light is an electromagnetic wave, and if it passes from air to glass the glass molecules interfere due to their electromagnetic response to the light. The way the light bends can be proven from Maxwell's equations.
Thank you so much. Greetings from Bimac Research Group at Universidad del Cauca, Colombia.
8 minutes in matey gets well aggressive ๐ love it
Thank you for this most interesting talk. When I was at high school in Glasgow (The Glasgow Academy, perhaps a sort of rival school to The Edinburgh Academy!), one of the Physics laboratories was named the Maxwell Lab. I'm glad you ended with a reference to Maxwell's personal faith. It is said that at the age of 8 he could recite from memory all 176 verses of Psalm 119! But his knowledge of the Bible appears not just to have been 'head knowledge'. It is said that Maxwell believed that because the universe had been created by God, and that human beings had been created in God's image, it was perfectly reasonable that we could and should try to understand the universe.
I heard when Russian physicists visit Europe they go to Maxwell grave to show respect and gratitude for his discoveries.
I seen some of his math itโs almost jaw dropping on how you can prove something without actually seeing something in the works.
Some of the things Maxwell proves is just genius by the way he proves mathematically, his brain was without doubt wired differently.
Maxwell had the rarest ability to see invisible things precisely as they are. This goes way beyond intellectual brilliance. When he described Saturn rings mathematically, they turned out to be EXACTLY what he predicted, as discovered only much later. When he described human vision mathematically, it was later found that the three detectors in the human eye for red, green, and purple colors were indeed physically there and worked exactly as he described them. The most magical of all was his mathematical description of electromagnetism, which was EXACTLY correct, every bit of it, as discovered much later. His claim that light is an electromagnetic wave is like shooting in complete darkness and hitting the center of an apple on a human head one mile away while knowing that. He was not just a genius; he was a prophet. He discovered things in exact detail from tiny, almost nonexistent hints. I cannot put him before Newton, but I do put him before Einstein, and I am sure that Einstein would have agreed with me on this. Maxwell's vision enabled all post-Newton physics.
Dr. David Goren
I'm not a scientist, though I appreciate his staggering accomplishments. Even more though, I admire his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. His minister wrote the following, "his (Maxwell's) illness drew out the whole heart and soul and spirit of the man: his firm and undoubting faith in the Incarnation and all its results; in the full sufficiency of the Atonement; in the work of the Holy Spirit. He had gauged and fathomed all the schemes and systems of philosophy, and had found them utterly empty and unsatisfyingโ"unworkable" was his own word about themโand he turned with simple faith to the Gospel of the Saviour."
What about Dr. Sheldon Cooper?
It should be noted that what is nowadays called "Maxwell's equations" is actually the work of Oliver Heaviside. Maxwell's original formulation consisted of 20 equations in 20 variables, and were quite impractical to use. Heaviside used vector calculus (another area that he improved upon) to obtain the four equations that are now widely known as Maxwell's equations. I recommend reading about Heaviside, he made huge contributions to a number of fields (e.g., he invented the coaxial cable and coined a lot of the terms which are used in electromagnetic theory), which is even more astounding since he was self-taught! I would very much like another episode focused on him. ๐
Maxwell is the sort of mind that makes honest academicians feel stupid.
Wonderful video! If I had to choose the greatest scientist or physicist, I would consider James Clark Maxwell.
Please also do Michael Faraday!