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 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.
Mark, thanks for the comments. Yes, introducing the imaginary plane changes everything, and some of us refuse it, some use it simply as a device for solving maths, and some realize that it is showing us a whole other aspect to the physical world that our usual senses cannot.
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.
Mark, thanks for the comments. Yes, introducing the imaginary plane changes everything, and some of us refuse it, some use it simply as a device for solving maths, and some realize that it is showing us a whole other aspect to the physical world that our usual senses cannot.
I spent a large portion of my career in simulation and control systems. I just have accepted all of it as useful and practical :)
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.