Quotessence
Home / Authors / James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

Physicist

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceMayLawMindMatterIfsBodyMenFormMathematicalTheoryElectricResultsSpaceAccountsDoctrineExperimentsHas BeensLightMaterials

Famous James Clerk Maxwell Quotes

“The theory I propose may therefore be called a theory of the Electromagnetic Field because it has to do with the space in the neighbourhood of the electric or magnetic bodies, and it may be called a Dynamical Theory, because it assumes that in the space there is matter in motion, by which the observed electromagnetic phenomena are produced.”

MayMatterBodyScienceSpaceFieldsTheoryAssumingElectricProposeMagneticNeighbourhoods
Book:The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Vol. I
Create image

“Science appears to us with a very different aspect after we have found out that it is not in lecture rooms only, and by means of the electric light projected on a screen, that we may witness physical phenomena, but that we may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion.”

MayMeanDifferentMatterLightScienceFoundGamesWaterRoomsAirSeaLandHighestAspectAccountsStormScreensDoctrineWitnessElectricLecturesGymnasticsIllustrationElectric Light
Book:The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell
Create image

“The experimental investigation by which Ampere established the law of the 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.”

IfsMayWholeSeemsActionFormLawSciencePerfectBrainTheoryAchievementCurrentsBrilliantExperimentsFormulasElectricInvestigationElectricityNewtonAccuracyCardinalsDynamics
Author:James Clerk Maxwell
Create image

“What, then, is light according to the electromagnetic theory? It consists of alternate and opposite rapidly recurring transverse magnetic disturbances, accompanied with electric displacements, the direction of the electric displacement being at the right angles to the magnetic disturbance, and both at right angles to the direction of the ray.”

LightScienceTheoryOppositesRaysElectricAngleDisturbanceMagneticRecurringDisplacement
Book:The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell:
Create image

“One of the chief peculiarities of this treatise is the doctrine that the true electric current, on which the electromagnetic phenomena depend, is not the same thing as the current of conduction, but that the time-variation of the electric displacement must [also] be taken into account.”

ScienceTakenDependsAccountsCurrentsDoctrineChiefsElectricVariationDisplacementElectric Current
Book:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
Create image