Jan 4, 2008

James Maxwell (1831-1879)

Update: Thanks to ieatgreenfleas for this comparison.

(Click to Enlarge)



Thanks to Havoc1992 for the info following.

Don't know if this has anything to to with Maxwell Group, but it's really interesting!

Scottish mathematician and physicist who published physical and mathematical theories of the electromagnetic field. Eric Weisstein's World of Physics When he first became interested in electricity, he wrote Kelvin asking how best to proceed. Kelvin recommended that Maxwell read the published works in the order Faraday, Kelvin, Ampère, and then the German physicists. Maxwell wanted to present electricity in its most simple form. He started out by writing a paper entitled "On Faraday's Lines of Force" (1856), in which he translated Faraday's theories into mathematical form, presenting the lines of force as imaginary tubes containing an incompressible fluid. He then published "On Physical Lines of Force" (1861) in which he treated the lines of force as real entities, based on the movement of iron filings in a magnetic field Eric Weisstein's World of Physics and using the analogy of an idle wheel. He also presented a derivation that light Eric Weisstein's World of Physics consists of transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. Finally, he published a purely mathematical theory in "On a Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" (1865).

Maxwell's formulation of electricity and magnetism was published in A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), which included the formulas today known as the Maxwell equations. Eric Weisstein's World of Physics Maxwell also showed that these equation implicitly required the existence of electromagnetic waves Eric Weisstein's World of Physics traveling at the speed of light. Eric Weisstein's World of Physics He also proposed a physical theory of ether. Eric Weisstein's World of Physics He abandoned attempts to formulate a specific mechanical model, instead using the formalism of Lagrangian mechanics. Eric Weisstein's World of Physics

With Clausius, he developed the kinetic theory Eric Weisstein's World of Physics of gases. In "Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases" (1860), he showed the velocity distribution of molecules was "Maxwellian Eric Weisstein's World of Physics." His studies of kinetic theory led him to propose the Maxwell's demon Eric Weisstein's World of Physics paradox in a 1867 letter to Tait. Maxwell's demon (termed a "finite being" by Maxwell) is a tiny hypothetical creature that can see individual molecules. He can make heat flow from a cold body to a hot one by opening a door whenever a molecule with above average kinetic energy approaches from the cold body, or below average kinetic energy approaches from the hot body, then quickly closing it. This process appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, Eric Weisstein's World of Physics but was used by Maxwell to show that the second law of thermodynamics Eric Weisstein's World of Physics is a statistical law describing the properties of a large number of particles. Maxwell also observed in private correspondence that the time reversal of all events was consistent with the laws of dynamics, but inconsistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Maxwell published his views on the limitations of the Second Law in Theory of Heat (1871).

Maxwell made numerous other contributions to the advancement of science. He argued that the rings of Saturn Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy were small individual particles, performed experiments which showed the viscosity varied directly with temperature, Eric Weisstein's World of Physics derived the equipartition theorem, and tried to describe spectral lines using a vibrational model.

Source: Science World

22 comments:

Pandoras said...

Same guy on one of the Sunda Trench first version web page, isn't it ?

Smullie said...

the article does contain the names Mexwell (obviously), Kelvin and Faraday

Unknown said...

pandoras - yea it is the same guy

Anonymous said...

here take a look at this comparison.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2783/maxwellgroupbeardedmanxz9.png

Smullie said...

or it's this guy:

http://en.lostpedia.com/images/1/11/1X24_TomBoat.jpg

:P

Steff said...

now THIS is called a match... Nice find Pandoras

Unknown said...

It is james maxwell. I googled it for images and found this

http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/lemur.com/gallery-of-antiquarian-technology/worthies/maxwell-1200-scale1000.jpg

Anonymous said...

http://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/html/birthplace.html

PenguinJosh said...

"ieatgreenfleas"

Hehe, nice name :)

PenguinJosh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jyrki said...

The ship image looks exactly like the one here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Slave_ship_diagram.png

Joern said...

awesome find guys..

JourneyJoy said...

Isn't Kelvin the name of the guy in the hatch before Desmond arrived ?

Unknown said...

Is there a way to see the Maxwell equations? Maybe they match our screen caps?

k-mo said...

It get's more interesting.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_demon

"Maxwell's demon is an 1867 thought experiment by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, meant to raise questions about the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics."

In other words, Maxwell imagines two containers, A and B. The containers are filled with the same gas at equal temperatures and placed next to each other. Observing the molecules on both sides, a little "demon" guards a trapdoor between the two containers. When a faster-than-average molecule from A flies towards the trapdoor, the demon opens it, and the molecule will fly from A to B."

Faster than average molecule flining into another world...

k-mo said...

Maxwell’s demon was also the inspiration of an Isaac Asimov (famous Sci-fi writer) essay entitled “The Modern Demonology.” From a post about the essay: “In it he argues that natural selection has *not* stopped working on humans just because we largely control the natural environment. The fact is that who breeds and who doesn't is now based on social concerns, and so the environment which is doing the selecting is society. And, he points out, it seems to be selecting for people who are good conformists.”

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

on my sundra trench email, it only goes as far as the krackatoa eruption. mine has none of this other, fancy stuff with pics on it. wtf???

dharma-scientist said...

did u guys realize that Mawxell picture below the sunda trench map is exactly identical to the picture displayed on James Maxwell wikipedia's page...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell

Sellout23 said...

Thanks K-mo for the simplification!

Could Maxwell's demon be Desmond? He did cause flight 815 to crash.
Could this be interpeted as a demon(Desmond) opening a door and letting the faster molecule(flight 815)through?

jj said...

James maxwell has the same side profile as the couple of frames of jacob that we saw in "man behind the curtain" episode.

masalo said...

I think there is a demon in the island, right? black smoke, it decides who lives and who doesn't.