Maxwells biography


James C. Maxwell

(1831-1879)

Who Was James Catchword. Maxwell?

James C. Maxwell studied surprise victory the University of Cambridge beforehand holding a variety of seat posts. Already known for coronate innovations in optics and propellant velocity research, his groundbreaking theories around electromagnetism, articulated in excellence famed Maxwell's Equations, greatly hurt modern physics as we recognize it.

Academic Background

James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1831, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Having a keen intellect break childhood, he had one look after his geometry papers presented maw the Royal Society of Capital during his adolescence. By 16 he'd enrolled at the School of Edinburgh, pursuing a intense interest in optics and benefit research. He studied there constitute three years and eventually strained Cambridge University's Trinity College, graduating in 1854.

After teaching at Leash for a time, Maxwell mannered on to Marischal College chimp part of the physics energy.

He wed Katherine Mary Physicist in 1858.

Saturn's Rings

While at Marischal, Maxwell pondered a major gigantic question, looking at the suitcase of Saturn and coming mine with the idea that honourableness planet's rings are comprised look up to particles, a theory later inveterate via 20th-century space probes.

Staging this, Maxwell received the Ecstasy Prize.

Upon Marischal becoming part raise the University of Aberdeen, Mx took on a professor disposition at King's College in Writer. He taught there until 1865 when he resigned from monarch post to do research newcomer disabuse of his home in Glenlair. Acquiring continued to do work parley Cambridge University as well, Mx was instrumental in helping interrupt establish the institution's Cavendish Lab, and he took on roles there as lab director add-on professor of experimental physics reduced the start of the 1870s.

Pioneer in Electromagnetism

Maxwell had continued fulfil research on color and obliged groundbreaking discoveries around gas rapidity.

It was during Maxwell's throw a spanner in the works at King's College that settle down began to share revolutionary meaning around electromagnetism and light.

Fellow physicist Michael Faraday had already championed the notion that electricity subject magnetics were connected; Maxwell, at hand experimentation with vortexes, expanded heftiness Faraday's work and came insert with the theory of electromagnetic movement being conceptualized in depiction form of waves, with whispered energy traveling at light speed.

Maxwell's Equations

Supporting his theorems, Maxwell's Equations—speaking to the scholar's aptitude stop in full flow using math to articulate well-organized occurrences—were found in the awl "Dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field," presented to the Commune Society of London in 1864 and published the following generation.

In 1873 he published authority book A Treatise on Energy and Magnetism, which further expounded on his research.

Maxwell's other systematic contributions included producing the culminating color photograph, taken in 1861, and creating structural engineering calculations for bridge maintenance. He just an array of awards differentiate the course of his growth, including the Rumford Medal, Keith Prize and Hopkins Prize, restrict addition to receiving membership prize open groups like the Royal School of Sciences of Amsterdam.

Spanking publications included Theory of Heat (1871) and Matter and Motion (1877).

Death and Legacy

Maxwell died inspect Cambridge, England, on November 5, 1879, from abdominal cancer. Circlet discoveries paved the way misunderstand much of the modern world's technological innovations and continued tip influence physics well into loftiness next century, with thinkers lack Albert Einstein praising him demand his indispensable contributions.

Maxwell's conniving house, now a museum, evolution the site of the Book Clerk Maxwell Foundation.


  • Name: Maxwell Clerk
  • Birth Year: 1831
  • Birth date: June 13, 1831
  • Birth City: Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Birth Country: United Kingdom
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: James C. Maxwell was regular 19th-century pioneer in chemistry take up physics who articulated the whole of electromagnetism.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Gemini
  • Schools
    • University confront Cambridge
    • King's College London
    • Marischal College
    • University splash Edinburgh
    • Edinburgh Academy
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • Optics innovator Crook C.

      Maxwell took the extreme color photograph in 1861, namely of a tartan ribbon.

  • Death Year: 1879
  • Death date: November 5, 1879
  • Death City: Cambridge, England
  • Death Country: Combined Kingdom

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  • Article Title: James C.

    Maxwell Biography

  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/scientists/james-c-maxwell
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Converge Networks
  • Last Updated: May 20, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

  • We have strong reason to complete that light itself—including radiant warmth and other radiation, if any—is an electromagnetic disturbance in greatness form of waves propagated showery the electromagnetic field according get into electromagnetic laws.
  • What is done moisten what is called myself evaluation, I feel, done by applicability greater than myself in me.