Physics Commons^™

The Scientific Theories Of Michael Faraday And James Clerk Maxwell, Shannon P. Israelsen

The Purdue Historian

This paper explores the role of mathematical formalism in physics theories through an analysis of the work of physicists Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell in the field of electromagnetism. After a brief description of the educational backgrounds of each scientist, their views on the nature of physics theory and its relationship to mathematics are contrasted. Faraday sought a mathematics-free theory to describe the results of his experiments, producing a family of concepts that became the roots of electromagnetic field theory. Maxwell built upon these concepts, giving them robust mathematical expression and incorporating them into one unified theoretical picture. An …