"If the idea of physical reality had ceased to be purely atomic, it still remained for the time being purely mechanistic; people still tried to explain all events as the motion of inert masses; indeed no other way of looking at things seemed conceivable. Then came the great change, which will be associated for all time with the names of Faraday, Clerk Maxwell, and Hertz. The lion's share in this revolution fell to Clerk Maxwell. He showed that the whole of what was then known about light and electro-magnetic phenomena was expressed in his well known double system of differential equations, in which the electric and magnetic fields appear as the dependent variables. Maxwell did, indeed try to explain, or justify, these equations by intellectual constructions. But... the equations alone appeared as the essential thing and the strength of the fields as the ultimate entities, not to be reduced to anything else."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Albert Einstein, "Clerk Maxwell's Influence on the Evolution of the Idea of Physical Reality" in Essays in Science (1934)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Clerk Maxwell
1831 – 1879
schottischer Physiker
52 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Clerk Maxwell →
Related Quotes
"He that would enjoy life and act with freedom must have the work of the day continually before his eyes. Not yesterda…"
"And last of all we have the secondary forms of crystals bursting in upon us, and sparkling in the rigidity of mathema…"
"Velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electromagnetic experiments of 'MM…"
"The general equations are next applied to the case of a magnetic disturbance propagated through a non-conductive fiel…"
"I have also cleared the electromagnetic theory of light from all unwarrantable assumption, so that we may safely dete…"
"I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I ho…"
"This characteristic of modern experiments — that they consist principally of measurements — is so prominent, that the…"
"We may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by w…"
"Changing electric fields produce magnetic fields, and changing magnetic fields produce electric fields. Thus the fiel…"
"The whole science of heat is founded Thermometry and , and when these operations are understood we may proceed to the…"