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Matter and Motion
This primer on physics, written in 1877 by the most eminent physicist of the 19th century, is intended as a brief introduction to Newtonian mechanics for students and educated lay readers. Though by modern standards this small work covers no new ground, it attests to the logical rigor and powers of elucidation of a scientific genius, whose insights into electromagnetism and the chemistry of gases were pivotal to the great discoveries in physics during the 20th century. Einstein described Maxwell's influence on the scientific understanding of the physical universe as "the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton." Maxwell's ideas also laid the groundwork for Max Planck's subsequent development of the quantum hypothesis.In seven concise and lucidly written chapters, Maxwell covers all the basic concepts of time, space, matter, mass, force, momentum, velocity, acceleration, laws of motion, work, energy, gravitation, and many other ideas. This edition also includes a chapter on equations of motion from Maxwell's classic Electricity and Magnetism, plus two appendices, one on the relativity of motion and the other on the Principle of Least Action.Complete with many useful illustrations to clarify the concepts discussed in the text, this accessible work is well suited for history of science courses or as a still-relevant introduction to basic physics for the average reader.
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First published November 4, 1991
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About the author
James Clerk Maxwell
198 books110 followersJames Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE (Mathematics, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1851) was a Scottish mathematical physicist. His most prominent achievement was to formulate a set of equations that describe electricity, magnetism, and optics as manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. Maxwell's achievements concerning electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics", after the first one realised by Isaac Newton.
With the publication of A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field in 1865, Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. Maxwell proposed that light is in fact undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena led to the prediction of the existence of radio waves.
Maxwell helped develop the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, which is a statistical means of describing aspects of the kinetic theory of gases. He is also known for presenting the first durable colour photograph in 1861 and for his foundational work on analysing the rigidity of rod-and-joint frameworks (trusses) like those in many bridges.
His discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics. Many physicists regard Maxwell as the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics, and his contributions to the science are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. In the millennium poll—a survey of the 100 most prominent physicists—Maxwell was voted the third greatest physicist of all time, behind only Newton and Einstein. On the centenary of Maxwell's birthday, Einstein himself described Maxwell's work as the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton."
With the publication of A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field in 1865, Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. Maxwell proposed that light is in fact undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena led to the prediction of the existence of radio waves.
Maxwell helped develop the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, which is a statistical means of describing aspects of the kinetic theory of gases. He is also known for presenting the first durable colour photograph in 1861 and for his foundational work on analysing the rigidity of rod-and-joint frameworks (trusses) like those in many bridges.
His discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics. Many physicists regard Maxwell as the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics, and his contributions to the science are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. In the millennium poll—a survey of the 100 most prominent physicists—Maxwell was voted the third greatest physicist of all time, behind only Newton and Einstein. On the centenary of Maxwell's birthday, Einstein himself described Maxwell's work as the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton."
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 28, 2019
In where one of the giants whose shoulder the history of physics stands on - explains basic (now known as classical) mechanics*. One may wonder why such a book is even worth reading given the advances of physics since maxwell. And well, in my eyes , it is to see someone who deeply understood classical mechanics simply speak. That is a pleasure in my eyes. For example, of why I enjoyed this I will show maxwell’s renditions of newton’s three laws :
“External or impressed " force considered with reference to its effect namely, the alteration of the motions of bodiesis completely defined and described in New ton's three laws of motion.
The first law tells us under what conditions there is no external force.
The second shows us how to measure the force when it exists.
The third compares the two aspects of the action between two bodies, as it atfects the one body or the other.”
This in itself helped me see newtonian mechanics slightly differently. For most people seem to be trapped by the classic definitions we use in textbooks. And of course, many are thrown off by number 3. He naturally takes them all and shows how they are all properly connected. This is beautiful.
Im glad to have found this very small gem.
Recommended for :
- Historians of physics
-historians of science
- intellectually curious people
*oh what an easier time it was before Copenhagen
“External or impressed " force considered with reference to its effect namely, the alteration of the motions of bodiesis completely defined and described in New ton's three laws of motion.
The first law tells us under what conditions there is no external force.
The second shows us how to measure the force when it exists.
The third compares the two aspects of the action between two bodies, as it atfects the one body or the other.”
This in itself helped me see newtonian mechanics slightly differently. For most people seem to be trapped by the classic definitions we use in textbooks. And of course, many are thrown off by number 3. He naturally takes them all and shows how they are all properly connected. This is beautiful.
Im glad to have found this very small gem.
Recommended for :
- Historians of physics
-historians of science
- intellectually curious people
*oh what an easier time it was before Copenhagen
October 9, 2022
Since this is out of copyright, a version is available here: https://archive.org/details/mattermot...
It's a fascinating read and introduction to a broad range of physics still relevant today.
It's a fascinating read and introduction to a broad range of physics still relevant today.
December 6, 2024
Well worth the read for anyone interested in the history of physics. Maxwell's intuition and physical reasoning is genius (placing everything in the context of its time), and this short book offers a remarkable demonstration of his thought process.
A few of my favorite passages from this book:
"Attempts have been made, with a certain amount of success, to analyze this action at a distance into a continuous distribution of stress in an invisible medium, and thus to establish an analogy between the magnetic action and the action of a spring or a rope in transmitting force; but still the general fact that strains or changes of configuration are accompanied by stresses or internal forces, and that thereby energy is stored up in the system so strained, remains an ultimate fact which has not yet been explained as the result of any more fundamental principle." § 84
"Now, since heat can be produced it cannot be a substance; and since whenever mechanical energy is lost by friction there is a production of heat, and whenever there is a gain of mechanical energy in an engine there is a loss of heat; and since the quantity of energy lost or gained is proportional to the quantity of heat gained or lost, we conclude that heat is a form of energy. We have also reasons for believing that the minute particles of a hot body are in a state of rapid agitation, that is to say, that each particle is always moving very swiftly, but that the direction of its motion alters so often that it makes little or no progress from one region to another. If this be the case, a part, and it may be a very large part, of the energy of a hot body must be in the form of kinetic energy. But for our present purpose it is unnecessary to ascertain in what form energy exists in a hot body; the most important fact is that energy may be measured in the form of heat, and since every kind of energy may be converted into heat, this gives us one of the most convenient methods of measuring it." § 93
"As our ideas of space and motion become clearer, we come to see how the whole body of dynamical doctrine hangs together in one consistent system. Our primitive notion may have been that to know absolutely where we are, and in what direction we are going, are essential elements of our knowledge as conscious beings. But this notion, though undoubtedly held by many wise men in ancient times, has been gradually dispelled from the minds of students of physics. There are no landmarks in space; one portion of space is exactly like every other portion, so that we cannot tell where we are. We are, as it were, on an unruffled sea, without stars, compass, soundings, wind, or tide, and we cannot tell in what direction we are going. We have no log which we can cast out to take a dead reckoning by; we may compute our rate of motion with respect to the neighboring bodies, but we do not know how these bodies may be moving in space." § 102
"All that we know about matter relates to the series of phenomena in which energy is transferred from one portion of matter to another, till in some part of the series our bodies are affected, and we become conscious of a sensation. By the mental process which is founded on such sensations we come to learn the conditions of these sensations, and to trace them to objects which are not part of ourselves, but in every case the fact that we learn is the mutual action between bodies. This mutual action we have endeavored to describe in this treatise. Under various aspects it is called Force, Action and Reaction, and Stress, and the evidence of it is the change of the motion of the bodies between which it acts. Hence, as we have said, we are acquainted with matter only as that which may have energy communicated to it from other matter, and which may, in its turn, communicate energy to other matter. Energy, on the other hand, we know only as that which in all natural phenomena is continually passing from one portion of matter to another." § 107
Also some fascinating diagrams - ways of showing an enormous amount of information very simply - which are no longer common. Most noteworthy being the diagrams of total acceleration (fig. 6), the nested circles of simple harmonic motion (fig. 11), and the hodograph of planetary motion (fig. 16).
A few of my favorite passages from this book:
"Attempts have been made, with a certain amount of success, to analyze this action at a distance into a continuous distribution of stress in an invisible medium, and thus to establish an analogy between the magnetic action and the action of a spring or a rope in transmitting force; but still the general fact that strains or changes of configuration are accompanied by stresses or internal forces, and that thereby energy is stored up in the system so strained, remains an ultimate fact which has not yet been explained as the result of any more fundamental principle." § 84
"Now, since heat can be produced it cannot be a substance; and since whenever mechanical energy is lost by friction there is a production of heat, and whenever there is a gain of mechanical energy in an engine there is a loss of heat; and since the quantity of energy lost or gained is proportional to the quantity of heat gained or lost, we conclude that heat is a form of energy. We have also reasons for believing that the minute particles of a hot body are in a state of rapid agitation, that is to say, that each particle is always moving very swiftly, but that the direction of its motion alters so often that it makes little or no progress from one region to another. If this be the case, a part, and it may be a very large part, of the energy of a hot body must be in the form of kinetic energy. But for our present purpose it is unnecessary to ascertain in what form energy exists in a hot body; the most important fact is that energy may be measured in the form of heat, and since every kind of energy may be converted into heat, this gives us one of the most convenient methods of measuring it." § 93
"As our ideas of space and motion become clearer, we come to see how the whole body of dynamical doctrine hangs together in one consistent system. Our primitive notion may have been that to know absolutely where we are, and in what direction we are going, are essential elements of our knowledge as conscious beings. But this notion, though undoubtedly held by many wise men in ancient times, has been gradually dispelled from the minds of students of physics. There are no landmarks in space; one portion of space is exactly like every other portion, so that we cannot tell where we are. We are, as it were, on an unruffled sea, without stars, compass, soundings, wind, or tide, and we cannot tell in what direction we are going. We have no log which we can cast out to take a dead reckoning by; we may compute our rate of motion with respect to the neighboring bodies, but we do not know how these bodies may be moving in space." § 102
"All that we know about matter relates to the series of phenomena in which energy is transferred from one portion of matter to another, till in some part of the series our bodies are affected, and we become conscious of a sensation. By the mental process which is founded on such sensations we come to learn the conditions of these sensations, and to trace them to objects which are not part of ourselves, but in every case the fact that we learn is the mutual action between bodies. This mutual action we have endeavored to describe in this treatise. Under various aspects it is called Force, Action and Reaction, and Stress, and the evidence of it is the change of the motion of the bodies between which it acts. Hence, as we have said, we are acquainted with matter only as that which may have energy communicated to it from other matter, and which may, in its turn, communicate energy to other matter. Energy, on the other hand, we know only as that which in all natural phenomena is continually passing from one portion of matter to another." § 107
Also some fascinating diagrams - ways of showing an enormous amount of information very simply - which are no longer common. Most noteworthy being the diagrams of total acceleration (fig. 6), the nested circles of simple harmonic motion (fig. 11), and the hodograph of planetary motion (fig. 16).
September 30, 2024
THE FAMED PHYSICIST’S “INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE”
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, who formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, showing electricity, magnetism, and light as manifestations of the same phenomenon. He also wrote 'Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1877 book, “Physical Science, which up to the end of the eighteenth century had been fully occupied in forming a conception of natural phenomena as the result of forces acting between one body and another, has now fairly entered on the next stage of progress---that in which the energy of a material system is conceived as determined by the configuration and motion of that system, and in which the ideas of configuration, motion, and force are generalized to the utmost extent warranted by their physical definitions.
"To become acquainted with these fundamental ideas, to examine them under all their aspects, and habitually to guide the current of thought along the channels of strict dynamical reasoning, must be the foundation of the training of the student of Physical Science. The following statement of the fundamental doctrines of Matter and Motion is therefore to be regarded as an introduction to the study of Physical Science in general.”
He observes, “Absolute space is conceived as remaining always similar to itself and immovable. The arrangement of the parts of space can no more be altered than the order of the portions of time. To conceive them to move from their places is to conceive a place to move away from itself. But as there is nothing to distinguish one portion of time from another except the different events which occur in them, so there is nothing to distinguish one part of space from another except its relation to the place of material bodies. We cannot describe the time of an event except by reference to some other event, or the place of a body except by reference to some other body. All our knowledge, both of time and place, is essentially relative.” (Pg. 12)
He states, “It is therefore unscientific to distinguish between rest and motion, as between two different states of a body in itself, since it is impossible to speak of a body being at rest or in motion except with reference, expressed or implied, to some other body.” (Pg. 22) He adds, “Acceleration, like position and velocity, is a relative term and cannot be interpreted absolutely. (Pg. 25)
He comments on Newton’s first law of motion, “which asserts that a body does not change its state of motion unless acted up by an EXTERNAL force… To prove the laws of motion by the law of gravitation would be an inversion of scientific order. We might as well prove the law of addition of numbers by the differential calculus. We cannot, therefore, regard Newton’s statement as an appeal to experience and observation, but rather as a deduction of the third law of motion from the first.” (Pg. 42-43)
Discussing magnetism’s effect of “action at a distance,” he says, “Attempts have been made, with a certain amount of success, to analyse this action at a distance into a continuous distribution of stress in an invisible medium, and thus to establish an analogy between the magnetic action and the action of a spring or a rope in transmitting force; but still the general fact that strains of changes of configuration are accompanied by stresses of internal forces, and that thereby energy is stored up in the system so strained, remains an ultimate fact which has not yet been explained as the result of any more fundamental principle.” (Pg. 67)
This lucidly-explained book will be of great interest to students of the history of science.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, who formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, showing electricity, magnetism, and light as manifestations of the same phenomenon. He also wrote 'Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1877 book, “Physical Science, which up to the end of the eighteenth century had been fully occupied in forming a conception of natural phenomena as the result of forces acting between one body and another, has now fairly entered on the next stage of progress---that in which the energy of a material system is conceived as determined by the configuration and motion of that system, and in which the ideas of configuration, motion, and force are generalized to the utmost extent warranted by their physical definitions.
"To become acquainted with these fundamental ideas, to examine them under all their aspects, and habitually to guide the current of thought along the channels of strict dynamical reasoning, must be the foundation of the training of the student of Physical Science. The following statement of the fundamental doctrines of Matter and Motion is therefore to be regarded as an introduction to the study of Physical Science in general.”
He observes, “Absolute space is conceived as remaining always similar to itself and immovable. The arrangement of the parts of space can no more be altered than the order of the portions of time. To conceive them to move from their places is to conceive a place to move away from itself. But as there is nothing to distinguish one portion of time from another except the different events which occur in them, so there is nothing to distinguish one part of space from another except its relation to the place of material bodies. We cannot describe the time of an event except by reference to some other event, or the place of a body except by reference to some other body. All our knowledge, both of time and place, is essentially relative.” (Pg. 12)
He states, “It is therefore unscientific to distinguish between rest and motion, as between two different states of a body in itself, since it is impossible to speak of a body being at rest or in motion except with reference, expressed or implied, to some other body.” (Pg. 22) He adds, “Acceleration, like position and velocity, is a relative term and cannot be interpreted absolutely. (Pg. 25)
He comments on Newton’s first law of motion, “which asserts that a body does not change its state of motion unless acted up by an EXTERNAL force… To prove the laws of motion by the law of gravitation would be an inversion of scientific order. We might as well prove the law of addition of numbers by the differential calculus. We cannot, therefore, regard Newton’s statement as an appeal to experience and observation, but rather as a deduction of the third law of motion from the first.” (Pg. 42-43)
Discussing magnetism’s effect of “action at a distance,” he says, “Attempts have been made, with a certain amount of success, to analyse this action at a distance into a continuous distribution of stress in an invisible medium, and thus to establish an analogy between the magnetic action and the action of a spring or a rope in transmitting force; but still the general fact that strains of changes of configuration are accompanied by stresses of internal forces, and that thereby energy is stored up in the system so strained, remains an ultimate fact which has not yet been explained as the result of any more fundamental principle.” (Pg. 67)
This lucidly-explained book will be of great interest to students of the history of science.
May 24, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews