“Most creative scientists, even the most prolific and versatile, produce one theory per subject. When that theory has run its course they move on to another topic, or stop inventing. Maxwell was unique in the way he could could return… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
