james clerk maxwell

JAMES CLERK MAXWELL

Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, born in 1831, originated the idea of electromagnetic radiation. His work laid the foundations for Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. He also determined the nature of Saturn's rings and produced the kinetic theory of gases. Maxwell's ideas are the basis for quantum mechanics, and ultimately the theory of the structure of atoms and James Clerk Maxwell was born 13 June 1831 at 14 India Street, Edinburgh, to John Clerk, an advocate, and Frances Cay. John Clerk-Maxwell was a man of comfortable means, of the Clerk family of Penicuik, holders of the baronetcy of Clerk of Penicuik; his father's brother being the 6th Baronet. He had been born "John Clerk", adding the surname Maxwell to his own after he inherited a country estate in Middlebie, Kirkcudbrightshire from connections to the Maxwell family, themselves members of the peerage. James was the first cousin of notable 19th century artist Jemima Blackburn.

Maxwell's parents did not meet and marry until they were well into their thirties, unusual for the time. His mother was nearly 40 years old when he was born. They had had one earlier child, a daughter, Elizabeth, who died in infancy. They named their only surviving child James, a name that had sufficed not only for his grandfather, but also many of his other ancestors.

When Maxwell was young his family moved to Glenlair House, which his parents had built on the 1,500 acres (6.1 km²) Middlebie estate. All indications suggest that Maxwell had maintained an unquenchable curiosity from an early age. By the age of three, everything that moved, shone, or made a noise drew the question: "what's the go o' that?".In a passage added to a letter from his father to his sister-in-law Jane Cay in 1834, his mother described this innate sense of inquisitiveness:

"He is a very happy man, and has improved much since the weather got moderate; he has great work with doors, locks, keys, etc., and "show me how it doos" is never out of his mouth. He also investigates the hidden course of streams and bell-wires, the way the water gets from the pond through the wall. molecules.

INVENTIONS

. Following James Clerk Maxwell's research, we now call a space modified by the presence of magnetic field lines a "magnetic field": if a bar magnet is placed there, it will experience magnetic forces, but the field exists even when no magnet is present. Similarly, an "electric field" is the space in which electric forces may be sensed--for instance between metal objects charged ( ) and (-) by a battery, as in the drawing accompanying the discussion of the electron.

In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated a subtle connection between the two types of force, unexpectedly involving the velocity of light. James Clerk Maxwell showed that an "electromagnetic wave" was possible, a rapid interplay of electric and magnetic fields spreading with the velocity of light. Maxwell correctly guessed that light was in fact such a wave, that it was basically an electromagnetic phenomenon, and with this his equations paved the way to a much deeper understanding of optics, the science of light. He further showed that electric and magnetic fields travelled through space, in the form of waves, at a speed of 3.0 × 10⁸ m/s. He thus argued that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation.

James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves. From this connection sprang the idea that light was an electric phenomenon, the discovery of radio waves, Einstein's theory of relativity and a great deal of present-day physics.