Maxwell's equation | Formulator | Name | |||
Gauss-Maxwell | (add) | ||||
Gauss-Maxwell | |||||
Faraday-Maxwell | |||||
Ampere-Maxwell |
“The future science of government should be called ‘cybernetics’ (‘la cybernetique’).”— Andre Ampere (1834), Essay on the philosophy of science; coined from (Ѻ) the French word meaning “the art of governing”, from the Greek kybernetes “navigator or steersman” ; adopted by Norbert Wiener for the field of control and communication theory
“The experimental investigations by which Ampere established the laws of mechanical action between electric currents is one of the most brilliant achievements in science. The whole, theory and experiment, seems as if it had leaped, full grown and full armed, from the brain of the ‘Newton of electricity’. It is perfect in form, and unassailable in accuracy, and it is summed up in a formula from which all the phenomena may be deduced, and which must always remain the cardinal formula of electro-dynamics.”— James Maxwell (1873), Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Volume 2 [6]; note: in the 1780s, some regarded Alessandro Volta as the “Newton of electricity” (Ѻ)(Ѻ)(Ѻ)
“It has been stated, on no less authority than that of the great Maxwell, that Ampère's law of force between a pair of current elements is the cardinal formula of electrodynamics. If so, should we not be always using it? Do we ever use it? Did Maxwell, in his treatise? Surely there is some mistake. I do not in the least mean to rob Ampère of the credit of being the father of electrodynamics; I would only transfer the name of cardinal formula to another due to him, expressing the mechanical force on an element of a conductor supporting current in any magnetic field; the vector product of current and induction. There is something real about it; it is not like his force between a pair of unclosed elements; it is fundamental; and, as everybody knows, it is in continual use, '' actually or virtually (through electromotive force) both by theoretical and practical men— Oliver Heaviside (1888), “The Mutual Action of a Pair of Rational Current Elements” [3]
“My father never required me to study anything, but he knew how to inspire in me a great desire for knowledge. Before learning to read, my greatest pleasure was to listen to passages from Buffon’s natural history. I constantly requested him to read me the history of animals and birds.”— Andre Ampere (c.1820)
“Doubt is the greatest torment that a man suffers on earth.”— Andre Ampere (c.1820), on religious beliefs; “Letter to Friend” (Ѻ)