“He had made a discovery of the first magnitude. It opened up an entirely new approach to physics, which led to statistical mechanics, to a proper understanding of thermodynamics and to the use of probability distributions in quantum mechanics. If… — Basil Mahon Copy Share Image
“One of the things Maxwell learned from his reading was the fallibility of men's efforts to understand the world. All of the great scientists… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“The new law that he predicted seemed to defy common sense. It was that the viscosity of a gas-the internal frictional that causes drag… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“The E and H waves always travel together: neither can exist alone. They vibrate at right angles to each other and are always in… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“His system of equations worked with jewelled precision. Its construction had been an immense feat of sustained creative effort in three stages spread over… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“Leo Szilard, in 1929, showed that the very act of acquiring information about a system increases its entropy in proportion to the amount of… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“Maxwell's greatest work shows two unique characteristics which stem from his philosophical insight. The first is the way he could return to a subject,… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“He wrote up the mathematics and everything fitted together. James had shown how the electrical and magnetic forces which we experience could have their… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“In fact, confusion over units was not confined to electricity and magnetism. When two people spoke of a quantity like 'force' or 'power' you… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“He had made a discovery of the first magnitude. It opened up an entirely new approach to physics, which led to statistical mechanics, to… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“In the Treatise James made an important new prediction from his electromagnetic theory-that electromagnetic waves exert a radiation pressure. Bright sunlight, he calculated, presses… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“Most creative scientists, even the most prolific and versatile, produce one theory per subject. When that theory has run its course they move on… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
“It sometimes happens that mathematical methods conceived in the abstract turn out later to be so well suited to a particular application that they… — Basil Mahon Copy Share
