Re: Maxwells' Quaternions
Rob Hulsart ( (no email) )
Sat, 3 Oct 1998 20:23:57 -0400
>I heard that Harvard and
>>some other schools have a few copies, but they are in a reference section
>>and cannot be copied or taken out.
>
>I could understand the taken out part, but why can't they be copied (at
>least from a microfiche or computerized image)? That is pathetic. Still
>certainly the local students and professors should be able to view them and
>check for those equations, I know a person there I can ask, but they may
not
>get back to me for awhile, do you know anyone?
>
>
nahh....as far as I understand, Maxwell's original theories were written in
Quarternions (complex- complex numbers) which is a completely different
system of math then standard 2 part complex numbers. What happened was that
this guy Heaviside (et al) couldn't understand the purpose of this
higher-topology math, so they just dropped it. Everyone else found it so
much easier to understand, and eventually it was adopted and re-written as
Maxwell's own (after his death). So what we all learn in school is NOT
Maxwell's theory at all, just a subset of it. And since everyone seems soo
happy with current EM foundations, no one is looking to find anything wrond
with it!!!! (At least at a place like Harvard) I go to Polytechnic
University, which is the one of the oldest engineering schools in the
country (est. 1850 or so), and they don't even have a copy. Only the 3rd
edition (1950's) not the 1st!!
Im sure they wont let you copy the book, first because its almost 900 pages
(3 volumes) and second, the paper is from the late-1800's and the photocopy
process destroys the ink in the paper. You can't photocopy a 150 year old
piece of paper. Someone has to either scan it with a special scanner or
re-type the whole thing. OCR would be nice!! Point is there really is a
huge chunk of Maxwell's theory missing. Hopefully it will be available
soon!
-Rob