Experimental Blog # 186

Notes and quotations from "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field" - How Two Men Revolutionized Physics by Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon and "The Age of Radiance" - The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era by Craig Nelson

From "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field":
"Faraday's first notion of lines of force, < > grew into Maxwell's sophisticated mathematical theory, which predicted that every time a magnet jiggled, or an electric current was turned on or off, a wave of electromagnetic energy would spread out into space < >, changing the nature of space itself."
" ... something in space must be storing electromagnetic energy and transmitting its forces, .."
"Maxwell had achieved the seemingly impossible - he had derived the theory of the electromagnetic field directly from the laws of dynamics."
"These were the laws of motion that had been discovered by Newton, with one addition - the principle that energy was conserved in any closed system. The concept of energy in space was central to Maxwell's new approach ..."
"It{the mathematics} described how the various quantities interacted with one another and how they varied in space and time."

From "The Age of Radiance":
Of all the scientists referred to in this very comprehensive and probably controversial book, Robert Oppenheimer seems to be a close second to Enrico Fermi.
In the photo section of the book Craig Nelson says that, "Edward Teller{possibly fourth most referred to scientist after Leo Szilard} was the Richard Nixon of physics, testifying against Robert Oppenheimer and leading Ronald Reagan down the path of Star Wars. But many believe his invention if the hydrogen bomb made Alfred Nobel's dream come true, keeping the Cold War cold and the world at peace." The author expresses these opinions more than once in his book.