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The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell
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| Part No: | 0470861711 |
| Manufacturer: | Wiley |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.5 / 5.0 |
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This is the first biography in twenty years of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest scientists of our time and yet a man relatively unknown to the wider public. Approaching science with a freshness unbound by convention or previous expectations, he produced some of the most original scientific thinking of the nineteenth century â and his discoveries went on to shape the twentieth century.
| Maxwell's Smart | 2010-05-29 | 5 / 5 |
| I have been reading Maxwell's original papers while having a go at electrodynamics and have been astonished at the clarity and beauty of his thought. While many undergraduates have encountered Maxwell's equations or Heaviside's reduction of them, few outside of the physics community know of him. I wanted to know more about this inspiring scientist. Mr. Mahon's clearly affectionate biography provided me with an eye-opening sense of the depth and breadth of this remarkable man. His biography examines several facets of his life and provides a sense of how widely his curiosity and accomplishments ranged. From early work on curves to a theory of color and a color diagram that has bearing on the RGB system used in computer and television screens, to the stability of the rings of Saturn to the kinetic theory of gases to the pinnacle of Maxwell's achievement, the "Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field", Mr. Mahon clearly shows the genius of the man. In addition, though, the reader gets the sense that this was an exemplary man, who inspired those around him. Maxwell was that great rarity, a person of great accomplishment who retains an appropriate sense of humility and tentativeness regarding "underlying reality". That he was polymathic and was imbued with a keen appreciation of poetry and a sense of quiet mischief also becomes clear in this excellent biography. Maxwell was a Mensch.
Why James Clerk Maxwell isn't held in higher regard, particularly in his home country, is a question that naturally comes to mind and Mr. Mahon provides some thought-provoking speculation as to why this might be. I wonder if a BBC production of Professor Maxwell's life would not, in addition to this biography, result in relieving this excessive quiet regarding the greatest scientist of the 19th century.
Mr. Mahon provides a superb bibliography that serves as the basis for further reading about James Clerk Maxwell. Thank you, Mr. Mahon for this wonderful book. |
| A Great Book about Great Science Discoveries | 2010-05-14 | 5 / 5 |
| If you have interest in any kind of Science, you'll love this book. But even if you're an Electrical Engineer, you will love it!
It's a book about some important Science Discoveries in the mid-1800's... and James Clerk Maxwell, who was one of the prolific discoverers. Other names you've heard are also in this book, and how their lives & discoveries intertwined w/ those of Maxwell's.
A definite THUMBS-UP! |
| Maxwell's life | 2010-01-05 | 5 / 5 |
| An excellent easy-reading account of Maxwell's life.
After reading this book and discover all the fundamental work developed by Maxwell you can not help to wonder why he is less known than Newton or Einstein. He almost started all the new physics of the XX century but he is barely known beyond professional circles.
In sumary, a worth-reading book even for non-science inclined persons. |
| Great biography of a great physicist | 2009-04-03 | 5 / 5 |
| This book is a comprehensive look at the life of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest physicists of all time. Although author Basil Mahon tried to explain Maxwell's work, the physics was still rather complicated. But the physics is not really the most important part of the book.
Mahon gives us valuable insight into Maxwell's life; his early childhood, his curiosity, his important relationship with his father, and his premature death. Also interesting was Maxwell's relationship with Michael Faraday, the subject of a biography entitled "The Electric Life of Michael Faraday" by Alan Hirshfeld. While these two physicists never really worked together, Maxwell developed the mathematics that provided the theoretical backbone to Faraday's brilliant experimental work. Mahon also does a very good job of explaining Maxwell's place in history, with his discovery of the nature of electromagnetic radiation. Even the notes at the back of the book were interesting and I recommend that you keep a bookmark there for handy reference.
Overall, this is quite a compelling book and I recommend it for anyone interested in the history of science. To gain the maximum benefit from this book I suggest that the reader first read the story of Faraday as a preamble to the life of James Clerk Maxwell. |
| A First Rate Scientist and Biography | 2009-02-25 | 5 / 5 |
| I applaud the author Basil Mahon for having written an intimate story of one of the great minds of all history. I knew Maxwell from my physics studies but had no idea of the range and depth of his impact in science. I particularly appreciated the effort the author invested in describing the complex but artifical mechanical models Maxwell had created to initially explain electromagnetism (although I felt he fell a bit short in recounting the transformational leap leading to "the Equations").
All in all, the book presents a good balance between Maxwell the man and Maxwell the scientist. I walked away feeling as if I actually knew Maxwell and actually mourned his inevitable but too-early demise. As the pages dwindled I kept hoping there would be an alternative ending. This man had positively touched so many and had advanced several scientific fields so irreversably that I felt deep gratefulness for what he had achieved, as well as for the story Mahon had written. |
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