Stages of Electronics

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/stages-of-electronics
As I pass the zombielike figures on the street, oblivious to anything but their cellphone screens, I wonder how many of them know that the most fundamental advances enabling their addictions came not from Nokia, Apple, Google, Samsung, or LG. These companies’ innovations are certainly admirable, but they amount only to adding a few fancy upper floors to a magnificent edifice whose foundations were laid by Maxwell 152 years ago and whose structure depends on decades-old advances that made it possible to build electronics devices ever smaller.

Not that that’s a small matter.
First comment: Nothing about Tesla? :D

Typical, Tesla had almost no influence on the theory of electromagnetism and the current technology of electronics.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Apparently neither did Gauss, Coulomb, Faraday, or Ampere -- only Maxwell.

As is very common, people (including many that should full-well know better) hear that all of electromagnetics is described by Maxwell's Equations and they assume that Maxwell came up with them. While he certainly made his own contributions, most notably the notion of the displacement current, what he primarily did was essentially package existing laws that had been established by others and showed that they formed a coherent whole.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Apparently neither did Gauss, Coulomb, Faraday, or Ampere -- only Maxwell.

As is very common, people (including many that should full-well know better) hear that all of electromagnetics is described by Maxwell's Equations and they assume that Maxwell came up with them. While he certainly made his own contributions, most notably the notion of the displacement current, what he primarily did was essentially package existing laws that had been established by others and showed that they formed a coherent whole.
You can say the same of Einstein or any great mind that they formed a coherent whole in a way that revolutionized science with their own contribution. What's clear about Maxwell's Equations is that they bridged a huge gap in our understanding of forces and effects that were usually defined as separate or fuzzy connected until that time in a way that even today is compatible with Einstein's theories because Einstein was exploring how Maxwell's Equations worked with his concept of space-time and the nature of physical reality.

http://photontheory.com/Einstein/Einstein09.html
Neglecting the important individual results which Maxwell's life- work produced in important departments of physics, and concentrating on the changes wrought by him in our conception of the nature of physical reality, we may say this: before Maxwell people conceived of physical reality-in so far as it is supposed to represent events in nature-as material points, whose changes consist exclusively of motions, which are subject to total differential equations. After Maxwell they conceived physical reality as represented by continuous fields, not mechanically explicable, which are subject to partial differential equations. This change in the conception of reality is the most profound and fruitful one that has come to physics since Newton; but it has at the same time to be admitted that the program has by no means been completely carried out yet. The successful systems of physics which have been evolved since rather represent compromises between these two schemes, which for that very reason bear a provisional, logically incomplete character, although they may have achieved great advances in certain particulars.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/the-long-road-to-maxwells-equations
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not trying to minimize Maxwell's contribution or say that showing that these equations formed a coherent whole wasn't revolutionary. My point (and just ask people when the opportunity arises) is that many, if not most, people, including many that should know better, believe that Maxwell came up with all four equations all on his own simply because they are called "Maxwell's Equations". They do not know that each of the equations was already well-established by other giants in the history of science.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
The strange thing is "Maxwell's Equations" are actually “Maxwell-Heaviside Equations” because Maxwell used quaternion algebra for some strange reason in his original texts. His mathematical discovery of what seems a physical-entity electromagnetic field as described by the equations was really a new concept in science that put unforeseen limits on the Newtonian universe that we still don't understand completely.
From a long view of the history of mankind — seen from, say, ten thousand years from now — there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.
Richard Feynman
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
Yep -- and, like most people, I never remember Heaviside's relationship even though it was presented in several classes and I have run across it on numerous occasions throughout the years. Yet if you had asked me ten minutes ago if Heaviside had anything to do with Maxwell's Equations I would probably have said something like, "I don't know -- it's certainly possible, but nothing comes to mind off the top of my head." Just underscores the fact that labels do matter.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
To me the operative precept is that they all "stood on the shoulders of giants". So far this century, we are 16+ years in, and only one of the seven millennium problems has been solved.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,976
It is definitely a culture shift that I can't grasp. I understand the concept of a "selfie" just fine, but what I don't get is how people can sit there at an event and just take selfie after selfie after selfie without end, How many selfies do these girls take in a given day? It is measured in the hundreds? Thousands? How can ANYTHING be so engrossing as to result in that kind of obsessive behavior year after year?
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,158
It is definitely a culture shift that I can't grasp. I understand the concept of a "selfie" just fine, but what I don't get is how people can sit there at an event and just take selfie after selfie after selfie without end, How many selfies do these girls take in a given day? It is measured in the hundreds? Thousands? How can ANYTHING be so engrossing as to result in that kind of obsessive behavior year after year?
I guess they go with what they got.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Hi,

I still see Einstein as a cut above the rest at least historically because what he came up with virtually changed every view that came before him. If there was anything moving with any significant speed, it had to he calculated a little differently.

The four Maxwell equations are also known by the original people who came up with each one respectively as i am sure you all know. It's just easier to call them all just one thing when we want to refer to all four equations at once, rather than name every person. We'd have to blurt out a string of names with hyphens between them...are they a set of equations or a new law firm :)
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
Hi,

I still see Einstein as a cut above the rest at least historically because what he came up with virtually changed every view that came before him. If there was anything moving with any significant speed, it had to he calculated a little differently.

The four Maxwell equations are also known by the original people who came up with each one respectively as i am sure you all know. It's just easier to call them all just one thing when we want to refer to all four equations at once, rather than name every person. We'd have to blurt out a string of names with hyphens between them...are they a set of equations or a new law firm :)
I like the shoulders analogy. With the four equations (Maxwell modified the Faraday and Ampère's laws making EM waves self-sustaining in empty space) individually you can't see over the electrodynamics wall but if you find the unique way to stack them one on top of the other then and only then is a clear view possible.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Hi,

Yes, all i was saying was that sometimes they are still referred to in the other names especially when talking about just one of the equations rather than all four.
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
835
The strange thing is "Maxwell's Equations" are actually “Maxwell-Heaviside Equations” because Maxwell used quaternion algebra for some strange reason in his original texts. His mathematical discovery of what seems a physical-entity electromagnetic field as described by the equations was really a new concept in science that put unforeseen limits on the Newtonian universe that we still don't understand completely.

Richard Feynman
It took me at least 30 minutes to research and try to even comprehend "Quaternion Algebra" of course my Math skills suck, but this week I've learned about more things in different threads than I have in 6 months on this site. In my classes, I was just getting into the meaning of "i" only to learn there is also " j,k," (i² = j²= k² = ijk = -1) and William Hamiton.

Thanks, @nsaspook for opening this up. :rolleyes:

kv
 
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Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
My comment was in response to NSA's sole focus on CGI ... and yes, it's all about 3D motion. Fascinating things, those Q-vectors.
Yes, you're right about 3D motion in general (computer graphics, robotics, navigation, Molecular Dynamics, orbital mechanics of satellites, etc ...). My bad.:oops:
 
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BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
Maxwell's equations was the death of physical science and the birth of metaphysics.

Dogma replaced science. His equations could not explain the atom. (and it still doesn't describe the relationship of E and M) And since his equations could not be wrong........that meant that the laws of physics do not apply at the atomic levels. A new consensus. A race (diversion) was on.

There must be new forces, properties and laws at that scale. Those discrete energy levels have to be caused by new, unknown forces. Right.....it's like since we know that our gravity equations are correct.....the movement of stars is now caused by dark matter.......which is 80% of our universe that we can not detect. This is fake science. Speculation science. Modern science.

And yet, the farther and farther down we go with nano structures and meta materials......the MORE important structure becomes. Think how structure effects biology. How could structure be so decisive or determinate.......if it didn't go down to the atomic level.

It's fit and finish all the way down. (and all the way up)

It will be an engineer (probably a mechanic)........not a physicist nor a mathematician........that will show us the true structure of an atom.

We will have to wait.
 
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