Hi Kevin, What was asserted in "The Maxwellians" was that Maxwell died in the middle of a rewrite. It did sound like there was a controversy on his particle (or little eddies?) form of the equations for a field approach. Perhaps that new version would have dropped the use of quaternions? Have not studied the equations since college, perhaps will go find the papers after I finish this history book. Thanks for the tip on locating the older forms.
73, tom n4zpt On 3/10/2011 1:46 AM, Kevin Rock wrote: > There was a group which disliked his use of quaternions so he was forced > to rewrite the system into other systems. Most of the work was carried > out by others but for him to publish he needed peer review so he caved > into the larger group. I am reading his original work from 1873 and > finding it very enlightening. Even though I have studied the > Heaviside-Gibb's version of the Maxwell equations many times the > quaternions he used in the original paper were very hard to find. Luckily > they are proliferating online these days. > Kevin. KD5ONS > > > On Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:31:18 -0800, David Cutter<[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I don't recall that from his biography, I'll have to read it again. >> Interesting. >> >> David >> G3UNA >> >> >>> Hi Kevin, >>> >>> Was not Maxwell that condensed the hard to understand original theory. >>> Was some his disciples, aka "The Maxwellians," that finished the theory >>> in the present form. FitzGerald, Lodge, and Heavyside plus others. >>> >>> Am just now reading "The Maxwellians" that has this story. >>> >>> 73, tom n4zpt >>> >>> >>> >>> On 3/6/2011 5:37 PM, Kevin Rock wrote: >>>> I have always wondered how he condensed the original twenty equations >>>> in >>>> twenty unknowns down to just four of them. The quaternions he used >>>> initially were out a favor with the physics community of the day so he >>>> needed to get them into vector form. Heaviside did a good job but how >>>> do >>>> you characterize a system with twenty unknowns in four equations? What >>>> has been lost in the translation? >>>> Kevin. KD5ONS ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
