A long-distance colleague of mine, Andre Assis, has for years been exploring the “forgotten history” of electricity & magnetism, studying and translating the works of Weber, as well as the early experimental evidence for our theories of E&M. I would put Andre’s work up there with Thomas Phipps Jr in the sense of clearly showing both the experimental and theoretical bases upon which modern E&M and Special Relativity are build, or NOT built, as the case may be.
I enjoy your writing. While mine pursues science and technology at times, yours is a much deeper and insightful approach. My POV is starting with Newton, without knowing it, humanity faced the challenge to explain what we now recognize as the four fundamental forces of nature. Each time, the "discovery" was done in the absence of the remaining unknown forces. Each one, has required the development or a refinement of mathematics. Newton withdrew to develop calculus to formulate an understanding of gravity. I think that electromagnetism brought us to embrace imaginary numbers and that is why the trailblazers fail to get the acknowledgement for their achievements including Coulomb and Maxwell for examples. The truth is as soon as you reference the √-1 a significant number of people in the conversation are lost. The strong and weak nuclear forces and their "understanding" evades all but the most commited. When time allows I am going to dig into your references. Thank you.
Michael, have you looked at any of Eric Dollard's ideas and info around electricity? Your discussion of re-examining the foundations of the science of electricity and physical fundamentals reminded me of some of the things Dollard has talked about and experimented with.
I enjoy your writing. While mine pursues science and technology at times, yours is a much deeper and insightful approach. My POV is starting with Newton, without knowing it, humanity faced the challenge to explain what we now recognize as the four fundamental forces of nature. Each time, the "discovery" was done in the absence of the remaining unknown forces. Each one, has required the development or a refinement of mathematics. Newton withdrew to develop calculus to formulate an understanding of gravity. I think that electromagnetism brought us to embrace imaginary numbers and that is why the trailblazers fail to get the acknowledgement for their achievements including Coulomb and Maxwell for examples. The truth is as soon as you reference the √-1 a significant number of people in the conversation are lost. The strong and weak nuclear forces and their "understanding" evades all but the most commited. When time allows I am going to dig into your references. Thank you.
Michael, have you looked at any of Eric Dollard's ideas and info around electricity? Your discussion of re-examining the foundations of the science of electricity and physical fundamentals reminded me of some of the things Dollard has talked about and experimented with.