Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics

Among non-fiction , I love memoirs and autobiographies the most. Memoirs and autobiographies of great men are a widow to the times of their lives, their thought process and habits that made them successful. 

Good memoirs come with great research on the subject matter that is related to the personality. For eg: I learnt many things about Relativity from his autobiography than many technical books.. I learnt many things about personal computers and the business of iPod and iPhone's from Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson.

  So when I chose this book, my motivation was to understand the thought process and circumstances  that helped these scientists make some fundamental discoveries in physics that revolutionized physics .

  The book starts with the life of Micheal Faraday. Faraday did not have a formal education in math , but he made up for his lack of expertise by with practical experiments that helped him confirm his theories. His ideas weren't expressed formally and was not understood well by many physicists during his time.  That gap was filled by James Clark Maxwell. Maxwell took special interest in the notes from Faraday and formalized them mathematically to create the Maxwell equations!

Here are some quotes I liked in the book:

"In August 1931, Faraday wrote in his laboratory journal, the first words for a new project that was to become his finest work. His 'Experimental Researches in Electricity', a monumental

opus, written in words without a single formula had begun"  - pg 68

 

 ( The first electric motor ) 

".. he stuck an iron bar magnet into hot wax in the bottom of a basin and when the wax had hardened , filled the basin with mercury until only the top of the  magnet was exposed . He dangled a short length of wire from an insulated string so that its bottom end dipped in the mercury, and then he connected the 

terminal of a battery to the top end of the wire and the other to the mercury. 

The wire and the mercury now formed part of a circuit that would remain unbroken even if the bottom end of the wire moved. And move it did !! in rapid circles around  the magnet. 

 Not done yet, he modified the apparatus slightly, freeing the magnet and letting it float in the mercury , but with one end tethered to a fixed point in the base of the basin.

About a quarter of the magnet was now exposed above the surface of mercury. He replaced the dangling wire with a fixed one that dipped into the mercury at the center of its surface,

and then he reconnected the battery. This time the magnet revolved around the wire ! Faraday had become a discoverer : he had made the worlds first electric motor " - pg 59

 (the first dynamo) 

Using magnets to product electricity . Pg - 72-74.

Another great passage . Must read.

" Remarkably , all the common terms now used in electrolysis , except for the stubborn old survivor current ,are the ones Faraday created in the 1830's with the  help of leaned friends". - pg 86

"... Lord Kelvin was prodigy who had enrolled at Glasgow university at the age of ten and taken prizes in all subjects... at the age of seventeen, he had shown that Faraday's electric lines of force could be represented by the same equations that Joseph Fourier had derived for the flow of heat in a metal bar - "pg 96

"internal strains in a transparent substance could be detected by shining polarized light through it."

(reason why many experiments were done with polarized light) - pg 97

"Over the years, it has included among its ranks, many who went on to make outstanding contributions to human thought and its expression. For e.g. AL Tennyson, Rupert Brook, Bertand Russel, Ludwig Wittgenstein, mathematician G.H.Hardy, E.M. Foster and John Maynard Kaynes"  -pg 145.

 (Describing about an elite discussion group called Apostles at Trinity college). 

"Farady had though of the lines as discrete, he always talked of the number of lines, but Maxwell merged them into a continuous entity called flux". - pg 159

 (Some history about 'flux' which is a common term in EM theory. )

"I know the tendency of the human mind is to do anything rather than think. But mental labor is not thought , and those who have with labor acquired the habit of application often find it much easier to get up a formula rather than master a principle"  - pg 181.

** Highly recommend pages 187 - 188, where Maxwell derives Faraday's laws of electricity from 'first principles'. ** 

Verdict : Highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Physics. I liked the writing. The concepts and the discoveries of these  scientists are explained clearly that even a lay person could understand.

My Running journey - Novice to an ultra marathoner.

The inspiration:
I have always been keen on my fitness and diet .I am not sure what triggered this but the habit stayed on and continues.  I used to keep myself active with some activity or other. 

One of my earliest memory about running is a 3K (2mile) run I did with my sister  in 2011 at Shrewsbury, MA . At that time, it was more of a normal jog to get yourself refreshed after a long day.

The interest towards longer distance runs was triggered by reading Haruki Murakami's memoir  "What I talk about when I talk about running." Murakami explains how running helps him maintain a highly productive and stress free life. 

" For me, running is both exercise and a metaphor. Running day after day, piling up the races, bit by bit I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. At least that’s why I’ve put in the effort day after day: to raise my own level. I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be" 

But the dream to run long distances remained just that and I was not able to act on it. 

A turning point: 
Sometime in early 2016, a colleague was selling his fitness watch (The  Garmin Forerunner 15) at the company classifieds board. I purchased that watch without much thought. Looking back , I could say that turned out to be a point that got me more serious about running. 

Among other things, the watch had a daily step count and total calories spent on a day  . The steps goal increases as we meet our goal the previous day. I liked to challenge myself to meet my 'daily step goal' everyday. At some point , normal walks were not enough to meet the goals and I did jogs everyday to meet the goal. Without even realizing, I had started to complete some short runs. 

 

My first 10K : 

My first 10K 'race' was at the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon 2016. It was a unique experience. Dad and  Mummy, Sharmila and Jaishan joined me at the start line. I was impressed by the way the entire event was conducted.

Hyderabad Runners: 

When I moved back to India from the US, I was keen to sustain my running streak. I heard about a group called 'Hyderabad runners' an enthusiastic bunch of like minded folks that come together every Sunday for the 'Sunday Long Run'.

Community organized Sunday Long Runs or SLRs have really become a thing among running and fitness freaks thought India. Each week, the community plans to run on a predefined route. This is much safer option as there will be more people joining with you. The community arranges for volunteers through the route who guide you on the way and support with water and other necessities on the runs. These runs are good fun.  I got to explore new locations around Hyderabad and made friends from different walks of life . The best part is that they start very early in the morning and end by 8:00 AM and I could go ahead with my normal work for the rest of the day.

I gained confidence doing longer runs and by 2019, I decided to attempt my first Full marathon.

Most of us could complete a 10K run with their baseline fitness. However, half (21.09Kms)  and Full marathons (42.195) are serious pursuits and needs at-least a minimum of 16 to 17 weeks of rigorous training to complete the distance without any injury.  My friends advised me to attempt these runs with a formal training from a running coach.

Registering with a trainer forced me to get more disciplined. I was able to see tangible progress without risk of injury.I was fortunate to have a resourceful coach and very good running partners who were a great motivation. I made steady progress and finally completed my first FULL Marathon (The AHM2019)  in August 2019. I went ahead to run one more Full Marathon(TMM 2020).

My running streak continued and recently , I was also able to complete a  50K  'Ultramarathon'  (TUM 2020) 

This running journey for the past 3 years has changed me both physically and mentally. It has helped me plan my day better . Earlier , I tend to stay late sitting on work or wake up early and check my emails.Now, I sign off early so that I get adequate rest/sleep and make sure I complete my daily runs/training early in the morning! I am more mindful of events around me and I cannot avoid comparing most scenarios in my life as the way I approached my runs. 

My advise to anyone who wants to make some life changing habits is to give running a try! 

I'd like to end this post with the following passage about someone who tried to qualify for the Olympic trials after 35. Although her goals are different. The thought below resonated with what I am trying these days. 

"I had always thought that, at some point in life, most people become “who we are.” Our lives are built around whatever that is, and no matter what we might actually be capable of, this idea keeps us fixed in one place.

At 35, I thought I was “who I was.” I didn’t think it was still possible to improve significantly in anything, let alone something involving my body. Our culture is fixated on youth, on potential, on lists of “30 under 30”  ... I had to dismantle all that."