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From: Alan G3NOQ
Date: 01 May 2003
Time: 06:37:56
Remote Name: 20.138.254.2
Bill - Maxwell's book quotes three of the four equations that we call "Maxwell's equations" just about verbatim, allowing for the strange Gothic characters he used to denote vectors, and slightly different notations for curl and divergence. The fourth equation is the curl E one, which he prints in a form which uses vector potential, but the curl E equation can be derived just by taking the curl of both sides of the equation in the book. . . . Maxwell says he is careful to avoid quaternions because most readers would not understand them, but he also says he has no worries about using the idea of a vector when necesary . . . . However all his algebra is done using rectangular components, and the results are then turned into vector notation. . . . What is noticeable about the book is Maxwell's admiration for the experimenters, Ampere and Faraday. He called Ampere "the Newton of electricity" and states his motivation as the delight he experienced on reading Faraday's experimenfal notes. Heavyside gets a few mentions as well. . . Maxwell's book (2 volumes) is still in print (Dover and OUP) . . 73s Alan