Subject: Re: [HM] Speed of light
From: Peter Pesic (ppesic@mail.sjcsf.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 18 2000 - 14:50:54 EDT
Subject: Faraday and the speed of light
Dear Colleagues:
In answer to Mr. Landau's query below, Faraday definitely conceived that
light is a travelling electromagnetic disturbance. He expressed his view
in a lecture published (1846) under the title "Thoughts on Ray Vibrations"
(available in his Experimental Researches in Electricity, vol. 3, p. 451,
Dover edition 1965): "the view I am bold to put forth considers, therefore,
radiation as a high species of vibration in the lines of force which are
known to connect particles.... It endeavors to dismiss the ether, but not
the vibration."
Maxwell was, then, quite sincere when he described himself as "translating"
Faraday's insights into mathematical symbolism.
Peter Pesic
St. John's College
Santa Fe, NM USA
> Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 20:34:00 EDT
> From: "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau@aol.com>
> Subject: [HM] Speed of light
>
> Does anybody on the list have further information on whether it was
> Maxwell or Faraday or someone else who should be credited with the
> idea that electromagnetic disturbances traveled at the same speed
> that light did?
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