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--- james_clerk_maxwell [2023/08/10 02:13] – [Later years, 1865–1879] joellagace
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 Today, Westminster Abbey pays tribute to this giant of science with a touching memorial inscription near its choir screen.
-==== Electromagnetism ====
+===== Scientific legacy =====
+==== Electromagnetism ====
 From as early as 1855, James Clerk Maxwell had embarked on a rigorous exploration of electricity and magnetism. This journey commenced with his seminal paper, "On Faraday's lines of force," presented to the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Maxwell, in this paper, masterfully distilled Faraday's intricate theories into an intuitive model that intricately wove electricity and magnetism. He streamlined the vast expanse of knowledge into a formidable set of twenty differential equations, which were later crystallized in "On Physical Lines of Force" in 1861.
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 The veracity of Maxwell's groundbreaking linkage between light and electromagnetism remains one of the pinnacle achievements in 19th-century physics. Maxwell's pioneering concepts extended to visualizing the electromagnetic field, offering a more evolved perspective than Faraday's force lines. His work suggested that light's propagation needed a medium, termed the "luminiferous aether." As science progressed, the viability of such a pervasive yet mechanically undetectable medium became questionable. Pivotal experiments, like the Michelson–Morley experiment, cast doubts on its existence. This conceptual impasse paved the way for Albert Einstein's special relativity, which elegantly sidestepped the need for a stationary luminiferous aether.
+==== Colour vision ====
+James Clerk Maxwell, much like many eminent physicists of his era, harbored a deep fascination with psychology. Emulating the pursuits of Isaac Newton and Thomas Young, he was especially drawn to unraveling the mysteries of colour vision. From 1855 to 1872, Maxwell unveiled a series of groundbreaking works delving into the intricacies of colour perception, colour-blindness, and the underpinnings of colour theory. His stellar work "On the Theory of Colour Vision" earned him the prestigious Rumford Medal.
+Isaac Newton, with the ingenious use of prisms, had unveiled that white light, exemplified by sunlight, is an amalgamation of several singular colors. These colors, when fused back together, recreate white light. Newton further observed that a mix of yellow and red paints could replicate the appearance of a singular orange light, even though it was a blend of two distinct colors. This birthed a perplexing question for scientists: How could two multi-colored lights look identical but possess distinct physical properties? This phenomenon was termed as "metameres." Thomas Young proposed an answer, suggesting that colors are perceived via a limited number of channels in our eyes—specifically, three channels, leading to the trichromatic colour theory. Maxwell, with the aid of emerging linear algebra, fortified Young's hypothesis. He affirmed that any single color stimulating our three color receptors could be similarly excited by a trio of different singular colors. This understanding led him to devise the concepts of color matching experiments and Colorimetry.
+Beyond theoretical applications, Maxwell sought to harness his insights into tangible technology, especially in the realm of colour photography. His investigations into color perception laid the groundwork: if every perceivable color could be replicated by a blend of three primary colors, then photos capturing the essence of true color could be created using three distinct filters. Maxwell theorized that capturing three black-and-white images of an object through red, green, and blue filters and then projecting these images using similarly colored filters would allow viewers to perceive the object in its original colors.
+Maxwell's vision came to life in 1861 during a lecture at the Royal Institution on color theory. The world witnessed the maiden demonstration of color photography based on the tri-color principle. Collaborating with Thomas Sutton, the brain behind the single-lens reflex camera, Maxwell showcased the process using a tartan ribbon. The ribbon was photographed thrice—each time using red, green, and blue filters. A fourth attempt using a yellow filter was made but wasn't included in the final demonstration. Owing to the limitations of the photographic plates of that era, which struggled to capture red and were mildly sensitive to green, the end result wasn't flawless. Nevertheless, observers acknowledged that with more sensitive materials, this pioneering technique held the promise to revolutionize color photography. Later research in the 1960s proposed that the surprising success of the red-filtered shot might have been influenced by ultraviolet light—a spectrum that the red dyes reflected in abundance, wasn't completely filtered out, and was captured by Sutton's wet collodion process.
+==== Kinetic theory and thermodynamics ====
+James Clerk Maxwell delved deep into the kinetic theory of gases, expanding on a foundation laid by great minds before him. While the kinetic theory's roots trace back to Daniel Bernoulli, it saw significant advancements through the works of renowned scientists like John Herapath, John James Waterston, James Joule, and notably, Rudolf Clausius. Each of these contributions solidified the theory's validity. Yet, it was Maxwell who took a quantum leap in this field, showcasing his prowess not just as a theoretical mathematician but also as a hands-on experimenter, specifically concerning the laws governing gaseous friction.
+During the period from 1859 to 1866, Maxwell embarked on an intellectual journey to unravel the complexities of how gas particles behave in terms of their velocities. Ludwig Boltzmann later expanded on this, leading to the formulation of what is now known as the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. This mathematical representation describes the proportion of gas molecules operating at a defined velocity for a given temperature. Diving deeper into the kinetic theory, Maxwell illuminated that the concepts of temperature and heat revolve solely around molecular motion. By adopting this perspective, he was able to refine the existing laws of thermodynamics, offering a more comprehensive explanation of experimental findings and observations.
+Maxwell's explorations in thermodynamics also birthed a thought experiment that has since become an iconic part of the scientific discourse: Maxwell's demon. This hypothetical scenario imagines a sentient being capable of selectively sorting particles based on their energy, seemingly violating the second law of thermodynamics.
+In 1871, Maxwell's relentless pursuit of understanding thermodynamics led to the establishment of Maxwell's thermodynamic relations. These are intricate mathematical expressions that highlight the equality among the second derivatives of the thermodynamic potentials when compared across different variables. Taking inspiration from the pioneering work of American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs, Maxwell, in 1874, created a visual representation using plaster to delve into phase transitions in thermodynamics. This was a tangible manifestation of Gibbs's graphical approach to thermodynamics, bridging the gap between abstract theory and visual comprehension.
+==== Control theory ====
+In a noteworthy contribution to the annals of science, James Clerk Maxwell unveiled his paper titled "On governors," which was featured in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society, specifically in volume 16, spanning the years 1867 to 1868. This work stands as a cornerstone in the nascent stages of control theory.
+For context, the term "governors" in Maxwell's paper does not refer to political leaders, but rather to the mechanical device known as the centrifugal governor. This device played an instrumental role in the Industrial Revolution and beyond, as it was primarily used to regulate the speed of steam engines. The centrifugal governor operates based on principles of rotational mechanics and feedback loops to ensure that steam engines run at the desired speed. Maxwell's insights into this mechanism not only deepened the understanding of its function but also laid foundational concepts for the broader field of control theory, which deals with systems and their behaviors under different conditions. His work illuminated the complexities of systems that need constant adjustment and control, concepts that are ubiquitous in modern engineering and technology applications.