"Gradually... during the second half of the nineteenth century, the uncomfortable feeling of dislike of the action at a distance, which had been so strong in Huygens and other contemporaries of Newton, but had subsided during the eighteenth century, began to emerge again, and gained strength rapidly. This was favoured by the purely mathematical transformation (which can be compared in a sense with that from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican system), replacing Newton's finite equations by the differential equations, the potential becoming the primary concept, instead of the force, which is only the gradient of the potential. These ideas, of course, arose first in the theory of electricity and magnetism or perhaps one should say in the brain of Faraday."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
InventorsAcademics from the United KingdomNon-fiction authors from EnglandPhysicists from EnglandChemists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Willem de Sitter, Kosmos (1932)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Michael Faraday
1791 – 1867
britischer Physiker und Chemiker
44 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Michael Faraday →
Related Quotes
"ALL THIS IS A DREAM. Still examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent …"
"It is the great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it, whether in a degree great or small, instead…"
"I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk a…"
"A man who makes assertions, or draws conclusions, regarding any given case, ought to be competent to investigate it. …"
"I was at first almost frightened when I saw such mathematical force made to bear upon the subject, and then wondered …"
"But still try, for who knows what is possible..."
"If you would cause your view … to be acknowledged by scientific men; you would do a great service to science. If you …"
"Among those points of self-education which take up the form of mental discipline, there is one of great importance, a…"
"I have not been at work except in turning the tables upon table turners – nor should I have done that but that so man…"
"I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds."