Thu, 25 Jan 2018
17:00 -
18:00
L5
Was James Clerk Maxwell’s mathematics as good as his poetry?
Mark McCartney
(University of Ulster)
Abstract
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was, by any measure, a natural philosopher of the first rank who made wide-ranging contributions to science. He also, however, wrote poetry.
In this talk examples of Maxwell’s poetry will be discussed in the context of a biographical sketch. It will be argued that not only was Maxwell a good poet, but that his poetry enriches our view of his life and its intellectual context.