跳至主要内容

Maxwell’s Dynamical Philosophy: An Early Solution to the Problem of a Discrepancy between Particles and Waves

Read full paper at:
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=47518#.VFhChmfHRK0

Author(s)
J. C. Maxwell contributed to an important philosophy of science, the so-called Dynamical Philosophy and Dynamical Approach to his theories. He meant it by a Dynamical Approach a theory of motions of the moving particle that could dispense with the detailed mechanism of motion. In order to develop this type of approach, he applied a modified form of Lagrange's equations in his 1865 essay “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field” and in his master opus “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”. But an attentive historical research has also realized that he used an analogous approach in his contribution to a kinetic theory of gases, the well known statistical law of velocities.
Cite this paper
D’Agostino, S. (2014) Maxwell’s Dynamical Philosophy: An Early Solution to the Problem of a Discrepancy between Particles and Waves. Advances in Historical Studies, 3, 123-129. doi: 10.4236/ahs.2014.33012. 

[1] Buchwald, Z. J. (1985). From Maxwell to Microphysics, Aspects of the Electromagnetic Theory in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
[2] Clausius, R. (1872). Uber die verschiedenen Maassysteme... Annalen der Physik und Chemie. N.F. Band XVI.
[3] D’Agostino, S. (1996). Absolute Systems of Unites and Dimensions of Physical Quantities: A Link between Weber’s Electrodynamics and Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory of Light. Physis, XXXIII, Nuova Serie, Fasc.1-3, 5-51.
[4] Harmann, P. M. (Ed.) (1995). The Scientific Papers and Letters of James Clerk Maxwell. Cambridge University Press, 2, 1862-1873.
[5] Maxwell, J. C. (1855). On Faraday’s Lines of Force. Maxwell (1954), Vol. 1, 155-229.
[6] Maxwell, J. C. (1861). On Physical Lines of Force. Philosophical Magazine, 21; Part I, March Ibid, Part II, April and May 1861.
[7] Maxwell, J. C. (1877). Matter and Motion 1901-1921. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
[8] Maxwell, J. C. (1890). The Scientific Papers of James Clark Maxwell (3rd ed.). Vol. 2.
[9] Maxwell, J. C. (1891). A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[10] Maxwell, J. C. (1954). A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Vol. 2, Dover Reprint.
[11] Maxwell, J. C. (1954a). The Scientific Papers of James Clark Maxwell. Vol. 2, Dover Reprint.
[12] Maxwell, J. C. (1995). Scientific Papers and Letters. Vol. 2, 1862-1873, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[13] Maxwell, J. C. (Circa) (1871). On the Mathematical Classification of Physical Quantities. (Undated) Ibid, Maxwell (1954), Vol. 2, 257-266.
[14] Maxwell, J. C. (Circa) (1920). Matter and Motion. Reprinted, with Notes and an Appendix by Sir Joseph Larmor.
[15] Maxwell, J. C. (Undated). Matter and Motion. Dover Reprint.
[16] Meheus (Ed.) (2002). Inconsistencies in Science. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academics Publishers.
[17] Rosenfeld, L. (1956). The Velocity of Light and the Evolution of Electrodynamics. Il Nuovo Cimento, Supplemento al Vol. IV, s. X, 5, 1630-1667.
[18] Wise, N. (1992). The Maxwell Literature and British Dynamical Theory. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 13, Part 1, 175-206.
[19] Zeitler, P. (2013). Models and Metaphors as Revolutionary Tools in Science. Berlin: LT Verlag.                                     eww141104lx
标签：

评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

Does Immigration Promote the Investment of the Monopolistic Firm?

In the present paper, we examine the effect of increasing uncertainty of immigrants’ growth on the optimal timing of investment of a firm that has a monopolistic power over the labor market. It is revealed that when the uncertainty of immigrants’ growth is more than a threshold level, increasing uncertainty of immigrants’ growth accelerates the optimal timing of firms’ investment and enhances the economic growth, even if the uncertainty of immigrants’ growth is formulated by the geometric Brownian motion, which is in sharp contrast to the standard result that an increase in the uncertainty postpones the optimal timing. With an increase in the immigrants over the past ten years, workforces in the host countries have been growing significantly to the extent that the immigrants represent 70% of the increase in the workforce in Europe, and 47% in the United States as OECD indicates. In the present paper, we attempted to investigate the effect of increased uncertainty caused by the growi...
发表评论
阅读全文

Education Policy Implementation: A Mechanism for Enhancing Primary Education Development in Zanzibar

Education is one of the fundamental rights of individuals; therefore, the government of a country needs to develop and strengthen educational policy and quality as well as to ensure that everyone has equal access to basic education. The improvement of access and quality of education in the world is becoming as an essential factor in development, whereas the basic education (primary school), is acknowledged as a foundation of the higher educational development for every country. To fulfill this goal, governments introduce several policies and procedures; however, it requires some reforms and participation from the politician, policymakers, and other stakeholders to re-examine educational policy so that it can lead to multiplication and betterment of the reforms. Educational reforms actually focus on accountability. A positive educational development and reform is very challenging and needs more effort and strategy on how to use and utilize the resources effectively as such it can achie...
发表评论
阅读全文