James Clerk Maxwell

It's a Fact 

Maxwell was not a scientist who believed in equality of women in universities. One notable characteristic of the Cavendish Laboratory under Maxwell's leadership was the absence of women students, whom Maxwell would not allow into the laboratory. Finally he allowed women to use the laboratory, but only during the tong vacation, when he himself was away in Scotland. Because of this one group of women physicists, always more earnest in studies than their male counterparts, rushed through a whole year's course in a few weeks. It is noted that Maxwell who was well read in Art and literature even wrote a paper stating that George Eliot's Middlemarch was a solar myth!!! 



James Clerk Maxwell
``````````(1831-1879)
~~~~~~~~~~Revolutionary of 19th Century Physics 

Born: June 13, 1831 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died: November 5, 1879 (aged 48) Cambridge, England 
Nationality: United Kingdom 
Field: Mathematics, Physics 
Alma mater: University of Cambridge 
Known for: Maxwell's Equations, The Maxwell Distribu-tion, Maxwell's Demon 
Notable prizes: Rumford Medal, Adams Prize


James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish mathematician & theoretical physicist who revolutionized fundamental physics in the 19th century. He is ranked with Newton & Einstein as one of the all time greats in science and the most important & influential scientist of 19th century, on the 20th century physics.


The modern version of field theory in physics was put forward by Michael Faraday in the 19th century. Because of limitations in Faraday's mathematical knowledge it was not a mathematical theory, and he even compared lines of force to stretched rubber bands!!! It took another great physicist to put this theory on a firm mathematical basis. He is none other than the mathematician and physicist, James Clerk Maxwell.


Maxwell's most significant achievement was the above mentioned set of equations in electricity, magnetism and inductance — eponymously named Maxwell's equations—including an important modification of Ampere's Circuital Law. It was the most unified model of electromagnetism put forward by 19th century. The model is famous for introducing to the physics community a detailed model of light as an electromagnetic phenomena. Maxwell showed that his mathematical equations could express the behaviour of electric & magnetic fields and their interactions.


Maxwell was born on 13th June 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland. When James was 8 years old his mother died. He Later attended Edinburgh Academy where he had the nick name 'Dafty'. He distinguished himself in studies at this place. In early 1846 Maxwell wrote a paper on ovals, which was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 6th I April 1846.


Maxwell went to Peterhouse, Cambridge in October 1850 but moved to Trinity College, where he thought of getting a fellowship was easier than the former. He obtained a fellowship there and graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1854. He was the second wrangler in mathematics from Trinity (i.e. scoring second highest in the final mathematics examination) and was declared equal with the senior wrangler of his year in the more exacting ordeal of the Smith's prize examination.


In 1859, he won the Adams prize in Cambridge for an original essay, On the Stability of Saturn's Rings, in which he concluded the rings of Saturn could not be completely solid or fluid. Maxwell demonstrated stability could ensue only if the rings consisted of numerous small solid particles, which he called "brickbats". He also mathematically disproved the nebular hypothesis (which stated that the solar system formed through the progressive condensation of a purely gaseous nebula), forcing the theory to account for additional portions of small solid particles. In 1860 Maxwell was appointed to the vacant chair of natural philosophy in London. Here Maxwell calculated that the speed of propagation of an electromagnetic field is approximately that of the speed of light. He therefore proposed that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. In 1861 Maxwell was selected to the Royal society of London.


By applying statistical methods on kinetic theory of gases. he formulated Maxwell – Boltzmann kinetic theory of gases. This is a statistical means to describe aspects of the kinetic theory of gases which resolved problems in this theory. These two discoveries, namely Maxwell distribution and Electromagnetic theory, helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for future work in such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics. He was also credited with taking one of the earliest colour photographs and did research in colour vision and optics as well. In fact he won the Rumford medal from Royal Society for his paper on Colour vision.


In 1871 Maxwell took up Cavendish professorship in physics at Cambridge. He even designed the Cavendish Laboratory and edited great chemist Henry Cavendish's scientific Papers as well.

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