Milton Public Library

Professor Maxwell's duplicitous demon, the life and science of James Clerk Maxwell, Brian Clegg

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Professor Maxwell's duplicitous demon

bibliography

335247

Brian Clegg

the life and science of James Clerk Maxwell

Asked to name a great physicist, most people would mention Newton or Einstein, Feynman or Hawking. But ask a physicist and theres no doubt that James Clerk Maxwell will be near the top of the list. Maxwell, an unassuming Victorian Scotsman, explained how we perceive colour. He uncovered the way gases behave. And, most significantly, he transformed the way physics was undertaken in his explanation of the interaction of electricity and magnetism, revealing the nature of light and laying the groundwork for everything from Einsteins special relativity to modern electronics. Along the way, he set up one of the most enduring challenges in physics, one that has taxed the best minds ever since. Maxwells demon is a tiny but thoroughly disruptive thought experiment that suggests the second law of thermodynamics, the law that governs the flow of time itself, can be broken. This is the story of a groundbreaking scientist, a great contributor to our understanding of the way the world works, and his duplicitous demon