Maxwell, James Clerk

Japanese: マクスウェル（英語表記）Maxwell， James Clerk

Born: June 13, 1831, Edinburgh
[Died] November 5, 1879. Cambridge. British physicist. Educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, he was professor at Marshall College, Aberdeen (1856), King's College, London (60), and Cambridge University (71). He was instrumental in the founding of the Cavendish Laboratory and became its first director. He excelled in mathematics, and at the age of 14 he published a paper on egg-shaped curves. He turned from his research on the color of light and the rings of Saturn (59) to the kinetic theory of gases (60), where he derived the relationship between heat and motion and the law of molecular velocity distribution (Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution). He also worked on electromagnetic phenomena, which had been brilliantly developed by M. Faraday (64-74), providing a mathematical foundation for lines of force, and supporting the idea of fields, leading to the famous Maxwell's equations. Based on this, he predicted that electromagnetic waves are generated by electrical vibrations, that their propagation speed is equal to the speed of light, and that they are transverse waves, laying the foundation for the electromagnetic wave theory of light.

Maxwell
maxwell

The CGS electromagnetic or gauss unit of magnetic flux. Its symbol is Mx. It is related to the MKSA or SI unit Weber (Wb) in the following way: 1Mx = 10 ^-8 Wb. The unit is named after J.C. Maxwell.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1831.6.13. エディンバラ
[没]1879.11.5. ケンブリッジ
イギリスの物理学者。エディンバラ大学とケンブリッジ大学に学び，アバディーンのマーシャル・カレッジ大学教授 (1856) ，ロンドンのキングズ・カレッジ教授 (60) ，ケンブリッジ大学教授 (71) 。ここでキャベンディッシュ研究所の創設に尽力，初代所長となった。数学に秀で 14歳で卵形曲線に関する論文をまとめた。光の色に関する研究，土星の環の研究 (59) から，気体分子運動論に転じ (60) ，熱と運動の関係，分子の速度分布則 (マクスウェル＝ボルツマン分布 ) を導いた。さらに M.ファラデーがはなばなしく展開していた電磁気現象を手がけ (64～74) ，力線に数学的基礎づけを与え，場の考えを支持して有名なマクスウェルの方程式を導いた。それに基づいて，電気振動によって電磁波が発生すること，その伝播速度が光速度に等しいこと，それが横波であることを予言し，光の電磁波説の基礎を築いた。