#physics

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Canadian physicist Harriet Brooks was born in 1876.

Harriet Brooks is recognized as one of the first female nuclear physicists and a pioneer in the field of radioactivity. Under Ernest Rutherford's mentorship, Brooks conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity. Her work on the "emanation" of radium was pivotal in identifying radon, a noble gas, as one of the decay products of radium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Brooks

Portrait of Harriet Brooks. A stylishly dressed woman in a black and white picture.

"Science is nothing without generalisations... The suggestion of a new idea, or the detection of a law, supersedes much that had previously been a burden upon the memory, and by introducing order and coherence facilitates the retention of the remainder in an available form."

In: William C. McC. Lewis, A System of Physical Chemistry (Volume 1) (p. iv), Longmans, Green and Company. 1918

~John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919)

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

in 1905.

Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, for publication in Annalen der Physik.

Reconciled Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics by introducing changes to mechanics, resulting from analysis based on empirical evidence that the speed of light is independent of the motion of the observer. Discredited the concept of a "luminiferous ether".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_mirabilis_papers

Einstein, Albert (1905d) [Manuscript received 30 June 1905]. Written at Berne, Switzerland. Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (ed.). "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" [On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies]. Annalen der Physik (Submitted manuscript). Vierte Folge (in German). 17 (all series: 322) (10). Leipzig, Germany: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth (published 26 September 1905): 891–921. Bibcode:1905AnP...322..891E. doi:10.1002/andp.19053221004. hdl:10915/2786 – via Wiley Online Library, Hoboken, New Jersey, US (10 March 2006).

"Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense."
Quoted in Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

Happy Birthday Lord Kelvin! Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Thomson, an Irish mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer.

Books by Lord Kelvin at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48139

Kelvin in 1906 by Russell & Sons Russell & Sons, London. - Portrait of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), Physicist Creator/Photographer: Russell & Sons Medium: Cabinet card mount Dimensions: 14.6 cm x 10 cm Date: July 4, 1906 Collection: Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology - As a supplement to the Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology's collection of written works by scientists, engineers, natural philosophers, and inventors, the library also has a collection of thousands of portraits of these individuals. The portraits come in a variety of formats: drawings, woodcuts, engravings, paintings, and photographs, all collected by donor Bern Dibner. Presented here are a few photos from the collection, from the late 19th and early 20th century. Persistent URL: [1] Repository: Smithsonian Institution Libraries Accession number: SIL14-T002-05

in 1903, Marie Skłodowska Curie defended her doctoral thesis on radioactive substances at Université de la Sorbonne in Paris, becoming the first woman in France to receive a doctoral degree in physics.

The examination committee expressed the opinion that Curie's findings, including determining radium’s atomic weight, represented the greatest scientific contribution ever made in a doctoral thesis. via @NobelPrize

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43233

Recherches sur les substances radioactives by Curie, Marie Skodowska, 1867-1934 Marie Curie's "Recherches sur les substances radioactives" is not only a comprehensive documentation of her pioneering research but also a crucial scientific text that has had a lasting impact on the fields of physics, chemistry, and medicine. Her legacy as a trailblazing scientist endures, inspiring countless individuals in the pursuit of scientific discovery.

French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer Blaise Pascal was born in 1623.

One of his most famous contributions in Mathematics is the Pascal's Theorem. Along with Pierre de Fermat, Pascal is credited with founding probability theory. He also made significant contributions to the study of binomial coefficients, which led to the formation of Pascal's Triangle.

Books by Blaise Pascal at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7913

Burin executed around 1689-1692 according to Bernard Dorival, "L'iconographie de Pascal au 17e siècle" in Pascal et Port-Royal, 1962, p. 96; probably 1691 according to R. P. Lelong, Bibliothèque historique, 1775. Bégon, wishing to glorify the century of Louis XIV, collected portraits of illustrious figures, had them engraved from 1689 by Jacques Lubin, had those he didn't have interpreted by Edelinck, Simonneau and Van Schuppen, and in 1692 commissioned Charles Perrault to write the texts. The publication of this engraving and Volume 1 of Hommes Illustres was delayed because Pascal's eulogy, published in Parallèles des anciens et des modernes in 1690, aroused the hostility of the Jesuits and the opposition of Louis XIV. Perrault therefore replaced the portraits and biographies of Pascal and Arnauld with those of Ducange and Thomassin. However, the publisher Dezallier clandestinely printed and circulated copies with notices and portraits of the two Jansenists in 1696 (plate 34). Guillaume Desprez, the publisher of Les Pensées, printed the portrait in reverse: Pascal is turned to the right, and the author of the drawing on which Edelinck took his model is cited: François II Quesnel.
Machine arithmétique de Pascal - L’Encyclopédie. Diderot et d'Alembert — Gallica Planches de l'Encyclopédie de Diderot et d'Alembert, volume 4

replied to Project Gutenberg's status

Molecular Evolution
BY JAMES CLERK MAXWELL

"At quite uncertain times and places,
The atoms left their heavenly path,
And by fortuitous embraces,
Engendered all that being hath.
...
Soon, all too soon, the chilly morning,
This flow of soul will crystallize,
Then those who Nonsense now are scorning,
May learn, too late, where wisdom lies."

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45777/molecular-evolution

replied to Project Gutenberg's status

"Velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electromagnetic experiments of 'MM'. Kohlrausch and Weber, agrees so exactly with the velocity of light calculated from the optical experiments of M. Fizeau, that we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena."

Lecture at Kings College (1862)

~James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879)

Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell was born in 1831.

His most significant contribution is his formulation of the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. In 1861-1862, he published a series of papers culminating in "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field," in which he presented Maxwell's equations. He made substantial contributions to the kinetic theory of gases as well as to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1586

Photograph of James Clerk Maxwell Unknown. - James Clerk Maxwell Foundation An aged image capturing a man with a beard, offering a nostalgic look back in time.
Cover of An elementary treatise on electricity by James Clerk Maxwell. "An Elementary Treatise on Electricity" by James Clerk Maxwell is an influential book in the field of electromagnetism. Although Maxwell is most famous for his original works such as "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" and "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism," it's important to note that "An Elementary Treatise on Electricity" is actually not authored by Maxwell himself. It was written by James Clerk Maxwell's contemporary, James Clerk Fisher. However, the foundational ideas in the "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism," published in 1873, are deeply embedded in subsequent elementary texts on electricity, including Fisher's book. Maxwell's comprehensive work laid down the theoretical underpinnings of electricity and magnetism, and influenced many later works, including more accessible texts aimed at students and general readers.