Research Catalog

Title

James Clerk Maxwell : perspectives on his life and work / edited by Raymond Flood, Mark McCartney, Andrew Whitaker.

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Flood, Raymond
• McCartney, Mark, 1967-
• Whitaker, Andrew, 1946-

Description

x, 364 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour); 25 cm

Summary

"James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) had a relatively brief, but remarkable life, lived in his beloved rural home of Glenlair, and variously in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, London and Cambridge. His scholarship also ranged wide--covering all the major aspects of Victorian natural philosophy. He is regarded as one of the most important mathematical physicists of all time, coming only after Newton and Einstein. In scientific terms his immortality is enshrined in electromagnetism and Maxwell's equations, but as this book shows, there was much more to Maxwell than electromagnetism, both in terms of his science and his wider life. Maxwell's life and contributions to science are so rich that they demand the expertise of a range of academics--physicists, mathematicians, and historians of science and literature--to do him justice."--Dust jacket.

Subject

• Maxwell, James Clerk, 1831-1879
• Electromagnetism > History
• Science > history
• Electromagnetic Phenomena
• Science
• Physicists > Great Britain > Biography

Genre/Form

• Biographies
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Part I. Life. Introduction / Raymond Flood -- Maxwell at Aberdeen / John S. Reid -- Maxwell at King's College, London / John S. Reid -- Cambridge and building the Cavendish Laboratory / Isobel Falconer -- Part II. Science. Maxwell and the science of colour / Malcolm Longair -- Maxwell and the rings of Saturn / Andrew Whitaker -- Maxwell's kinetic theory 1859-70 / Elizabeth Garber -- Maxwell and the theory of liquids / John S. Rowlinson -- Maxwell's famous (or infamous) demon / Andrew Whitaker -- Maxwell's contributions to electricity and magnetism / Daniel M. Siegel -- The Maxwellians : the reception and further development of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory / Chen-Pang Yeang -- The fluid dynamics of James Clerk Maxwell / Keith Moffatt -- Part III. Poetry, religion and conclusions. Boundaries of perception : James Clerk Maxwell's poetry of self, senses and science / Stella Pratt-Smith -- Maxwell, faith and physics / Philip L. Marston -- I remember years and labours as a tale that I have read / Mark McCartney.

ISBN

• 9780199664375
• 0199664374

OCLC

• 869526023
• SCSB-10660818

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library