Maxwell's equations
Ecuaciones de Maxwell
- Date
- 1861-1865 · confidence high
- Place
- King's College, London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Clerk Maxwell
- People
- 👤 James Clerk Maxwell1831–1879
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
A set of equations that unifies electricity, magnetism and induction, adding the displacement current. It is the first complete field theory and the model for all later theoretical physics.
'A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field' (1865); the four-equation vector form is Heaviside's (1884).
What it led to
- Electromagnetic waves and radio
- Special relativity (Lorentz invariance)
- Field theory and gauge theory
- Electrical and telecommunications engineering
Built on
- Ampère's law and electrodynamics1820-1827
- Gauss's law1835
- Faraday's lines of force
- Thomson's and Green's formalism
Made possible
- Hall effect1879
- Poynting vector1884
- Electromagnetic (radio) waves1886-1888
- Phasor method for AC circuits (Steinmetz)1893
- Wireless telegraphy (radio)1895–1901
- Lorentz force1895
- Theoretical prediction of the electromagnetic waveguide1897
- Lorentz transformation1904
- Low-loss optical fibre1966-1970
- Radio, radar and television
- Antennas and waveguides