Prometheus Books Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics

Llego bien empaquetado, excelente libro. Aunque presento un daño ligero en la portada.

Great book content!

For anyone who dreams of a career in science or anyone who is keenly interested in reading biographies of people who were shining exemplars in their field of endeavour, this book is a must-read!Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon "knocked the baseball out of the park with bases loaded" when they wrote this book! This book is a beautiful story that had me hooked from beginning to end. The principal players in this 19th century science drama come to life for the reader. We learn about their childhood, their fascination with the world around them, the impediments and and the opportunities along the way, their rise to recognition in the scientific community, their families and friends, and the indelible mark they left for the greater good of humanity with their lives.Michael Faraday was one of the greatest experimental physicists that ever lived. All his theories were tested to the best of his ability in his laboratory work and expertly documented. He was not mathematically well-versed but his theories were based on sound testing in the lab. The other scientists of the day disagreed with his theories, but he would be later proven to be right.James Clark Maxwell came some forty years later on the scene, read Faraday's scientific papers and knew that this was a man of great genius. In Maxwell's relatively short life, he put his great mathematical prowess and experimental work to bear on Faraday's ideas, found them to be sound and published a monumental treatise on electricity and magnetism that was way ahead of its time.It would take nearly twenty years following Maxwell's opus before the genius of Maxwell and Faraday would be understood and appreciated by the scientific community. Scientists, who came to realize this paradigm shift in our understanding of Nature, formed a group referred to as the "Maxwellians". From then on their came a sea-change in thinking, leading to major advances in both science and technology in the 20th century and beyond.This book is a blockbuster! I believe it to be required reading for anyone who wants to read about science at its very best. The authors do not bog down their book with arcane equations as that would get in the way of the book's real intent. In my thinking, that intent is to capture the imagination of young minds to consider a rewarding career in whatever field of science they wish to put their energies to.Or if you love reading a good biography of people who made a difference for the good, you'll also love this book. I congratulate Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon on a masterpiece worth reading!

Das Buch stellt Biografie-Highlights der zwei Elektrizitäts-Wissenschafts-Heroen des 19. Jahrhunderts sehr interessant vor. Keine Angst, es enthält nicht Formeln, sondern auch subtile Schilderungen der damaligen Lebensumstände und des politischen Lebens in Europa, wodurch es über reine "Wissenschaftsbiografien" hinausgeht. Ein z.B. kurzer Rückgriff auf die bis dahin bekannten grundlegenden Entdeckungen/Entdecker von Elektrizität und Magnetismus helfen den/der vielleicht nicht ganz in dieser Thematik ausgebildeten Leser/Leserin. Eine wirklich interessante Lektüre, für die man erfreulicherweise kein wissenschaftliches Elektrotechnik-Studium vorher absolviert haben muss.

book has good print quality and content