The famous physicist James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1831, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is considered as the scientist of the 19th century as he has laid the foundation for the important concepts of electromagnetic theory.
Light is an electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength can vary from visible to non-visible spectrum. The electromagnetic waves are of different types such as radio waves, microwaves; infrared, visible and ultraviolet light; X-rays, gamma rays etc.
James Clerk Maxwell Findings
Maxwell was the first scientist who bought all the established physics law of Gauss, Faraday, Ampere, and Fourth law. Maxwell studied Faraday’s work and demonstrated the speed of an electromagnetic wave travels at the speed of light. Maxwell incorporated laws of light, magnetism, and electricity into one theory which originated into electromagnetic theory.
Maxwell’s findings were published in 1873 ‘Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism’. He noted the propagation of light in electric and magnetic waves is perpendicular to each other. The electromagnetic theory has paved the wave for many technological innovations in the field of electricity. The electromagnetic waves are arranged as per the frequency and wavelength. The electromagnetic waves are propagated in the space in the form of sinusoidal waves.
Heinrich Hertz was the first person to utilize the principle of Maxwell to develop equipment for sending and receiving radio pulses. Based on James Clerk Maxwell theory today’s must-haves, television and microwave were created. Human life is not imaginable with electronic devices.
The James Clerk Maxwell is often compared with the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for his contributions of the fundamentals of nature.
He expired on November 5, 1879, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.
James Clerk Maxwell Achievements:
• The Maxwell (Mx), a CGS unit measuring magnetic flux i
• James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society [120]
• IEEE Maxwell Award
• A mountain range in the planet Venus is named after him and Rings of Saturn is known as Maxwell Gap
• The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is the largest submillimetre-wavelength astronomical telescope
• The Maxwell Centre at the University of Cambridge
• The James Clerk Maxwell Science Centre of the Edinburgh Academy
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