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Maxwell's equations may be combined to demonstrate how fluctuations in electromagnetic fields (waves) propagate at a constant speed in vacuum, c (299 792 458 m/s [2]). Known as electromagnetic radiation, these waves occur at various wavelengths to produce a spectrum of radiation from radio waves to gamma rays.
Maxwell's relations are a set of equations in thermodynamics which are derivable from the symmetry of second derivatives and from the definitions of the thermodynamic potentials. These relations are named for the nineteenth-century physicist James Clerk Maxwell .
In free space, where ε = ε 0 and μ = μ 0 are constant everywhere, Maxwell's equations simplify considerably once the language of differential geometry and differential forms is used. The electric and magnetic fields are now jointly described by a 2-form F in a 4-dimensional spacetime manifold.
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is a result of the kinetic theory of gases, which provides a simplified explanation of many fundamental gaseous properties, including pressure and diffusion. [3] The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution applies fundamentally to particle velocities in three dimensions, but turns out to depend only on the speed ...
In summary, Maxwell's equations successfully unified theories of light and electromagnetism, which is one of the great unifications in physics. [9] Maxwell built a simple flywheel model of electromagnetism, and Boltzmann built an elaborate mechanical model ("Bicykel") based on Maxwell's flywheel model, which he used for lecture demonstrations. [10]
The maxwell is a non-SI unit. [8] 1 maxwell = 1 gauss × 2. That is, one maxwell is the total flux across a surface of one square centimetre perpendicular to a magnetic field of strength one gauss. The weber is the related SI unit of magnetic flux, which was defined in 1946. [9] 1 maxwell ≘ 10 −4 tesla × (10 −2 metre) 2 = 10 −8 weber
James Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician [1] who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.
One difference between the Gaussian and SI systems is in the factor 4π in various formulas that relate the quantities that they define. With SI electromagnetic units, called rationalized, [3] [4] Maxwell's equations have no explicit factors of 4π in the formulae, whereas the inverse-square force laws – Coulomb's law and the Biot–Savart law – do have a factor of 4π attached to the r 2.