1850, with his father's consent, he left Edinburgh to study in Cambridge, where there were many talents. Hertz is a young physicist in Germany. Maxwell's general theory of electromagnetism was published when he was 16 years old. In Germany at that time, people still clung to Newton's traditional concept of physics. Faraday's and Maxwell's theories give a new description of the material world, but they violate the tradition, so they have no place in the heart of Europe such as Germany, and even are regarded as whimsy. At that time, only Boltzmann and Helmholtz supported the study of electromagnetic theory. Hertz later became a student of Helmholtz. Under the influence of his teacher, Hertz made an in-depth study of electromagnetism. After comparing the physical facts, he confirmed that Maxwell's theory was more convincing than the traditional "distance theory". So he decided to prove it with experiments.
1886, Hertz invented a radio loop after repeated experiments, and made a series of experiments with this radio loop. Finally, in 1888, people discovered the electromagnetic wave that people had long suspected. After Hertz's experiment was published, it caused a sensation in the scientific world. The electromagnetic theory initiated by Faraday and summarized by Maxwell won a decisive victory. Maxwell's great last wish has finally come true. 1856 On April 30th, james clerk maxwell was appointed as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marichar College in Aberdeen. In Aberdeen, Maxwell met Catherine Marie Dewar, the daughter of the president of Marshall College. Catherine is seven years older than Maxwell, beautiful, slightly taller than him, clear and frank.
1858 February18, he wrote to Jenny Menstruation to inform her of her engagement, saying, Dear Menstruation, this letter is to tell you that I am going to have a wife. I don't write all her qualities completely, which I think is inappropriate; But what I want to tell you is that we need each other more closely than any couple I have ever met. Don't worry;
She doesn't study math; But there are many other things besides math, and she doesn't want to win with math ... now you know who she is. She is Catherine Marie Dewar (so far). I heard Uncle Robert talk (indirectly) about her father, the Dean. Her mother is a lady of high society, quiet and rigorous, but she always treats everything with a tolerant attitude ... that's the case. I have settled things with her, and everything is going well. These are all guaranteed, and you will know. Maxwell expressed his feelings for Catherine in his poem:
You and I will be together forever.
In the vibrant spring tide,
My god has.
Across such a vast world?
I want to spend my whole life.
Introduce this vibrant spring tide,
Really will achieve three selves.
Crossing the vastness of this world
In this poem, Maxwell sincerely expressed his love. 1858 On July 4, Maxwell and Catherine Marie Dewar (later changed to Clark Maxwell's surname, that is, changed to Maxwell's surname, named Catherine Clark Maxwell. When they got married, she was 34 years old-she was already a Victorian spinster. ) officially married, and the wedding was held in Aberdeen. 1850 transferred to the Department of Mathematics, Trinity College, Cambridge University. 1854 won the Smith Scholarship with the second place and stayed in school for two years after graduation. From 65438 to 0856, he was a professor of natural philosophy at Marisa, Aberdeen, Scotland. 1860 Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, King's College London. 186 1 was elected as a member of the Royal Society of London. 1in the spring of 865, he resigned from his teaching post and returned to his hometown to systematically summarize his research achievements in electromagnetism, and completed the classic masterpiece on electricity and magnetism in electromagnetic field theory, which was published in 1873.
187 1 was employed as a newly established professor of experimental physics in Cavendish, Cambridge University, and was responsible for the preparation of the famous Cavendish laboratory.
After the completion of 1874, he served as the first director of this laboratory until 10 died in Cambridge on October 5.
Electromagnetic love
Looking back at the history of electromagnetism, until 1820, physics courses were all based on Newton's physics thoughts. The "forces" of nature-heat, electricity, light, magnetism and chemical action-are gradually attributed to the instantaneous attraction or repulsion between particles of a series of fluids. As we all know, magnetism and static electricity follow the inverse square law similar to the law of universal gravitation. In the 40 years before19th century, there was a trend against this view and in favor of "force correlation". 1820, electromagnetic phenomena discovered by Oster immediately became the first proof of this new trend and an extremely powerful driving force, but people at that time were uncertain and confused about it. The interaction between current and magnet observed by Oster is different from the known phenomenon in two basic points: it is displayed by electrokinetic, and the magnet is positioned transversely to the metal wire without being led by current or pushed away by the metal wire. In the same year, French scientist Ampere summed up Oster's discovery by mathematical method and founded electrodynamics. Since then, Ampere and his followers have tried to reconcile the distance between electromagnetic action and the instantaneous action of existing ideas.
Maxwell's electrical research began at 1854, just a few weeks after he graduated from Cambridge. He read Faraday's experimental research on electricity and was immediately attracted by the novel experiments and ideas in the book. At that time, people had different views and theories about Faraday, and there were many criticisms. The main reason is that the traditional concept of "action from a distance" had a profound influence at that time. On the other hand, Faraday's theory is not rigorous enough. Faraday is a master of experiments. He has something that ordinary people can't do, but he just lacks mathematical skills, so his initial ideas are expressed in an intuitive form. The average physicist abides by Newton's physical theory and feels incredible about Faraday's theory. An astronomer once publicly declared: "Whoever hesitates about the definite action at a distance and the vague concept of force lines is blaspheming Newton!" Among scholars in Cambridge, this difference is also quite obvious. Thomson is also one of the most learned scholars in Cambridge. Maxwell admired him very much, so he wrote to Thomson and asked him about electricity. Thomson is seven years older than Maxwell, and he has given great help to Maxwell's electrical research. Under the guidance of Thomson, Maxwell was inspired and believed that Faraday's new theory had unknown truth. After studying Faraday's works carefully, he felt the valuable value of the line of force thought and saw Faraday's weakness in qualitative expression. So the young scientist who just graduated decided to make up for this with mathematics. 1855, Maxwell published the first paper on electromagnetism, about Faraday's magnetic field lines.
Maxwell is generally regarded as the greatest theoretical physicist from Newton to Einstein. 1879 died at the age of 48. His brilliant career ended early.
From 65438 to 0865, Maxwell resigned as the chairman of the Royal Academy of Sciences and began to devote himself to scientific research, systematically summarizing the research results and writing a monograph on electromagnetism.
Maxwell did not enjoy the honor he deserved, because the significance of his scientific thoughts and methods was not fully reflected until the advent of the scientific revolution in the 20th century. However, he failed to see the scientific revolution happen. 1879165438+1On October 5th, Maxwell died in Cambridge at the age of 48. Einstein was born that year.