James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell (June 13, 1831 - November 15, 1879) was a Scottish physicist who first wrote the laws of magnetism and electricity in mathematical formulas. In 1864, he proved that electromagnetic waves are a combination of electric and magnetic field oscillations. Maxwell discovered that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation. He also opened up the understanding of gas motion, by showing that the rate of molecules in a gas depends on its temperature.
The famous British physicist James Clerk Maxwell is best known for his formulation of four statements that explain the basic laws of electricity and magnetism. These two fields had been investigated for a long time before Maxwell and it was well known that there was a connection between them. However, while various laws of electricity and magnetism had been discovered and were true in some aspects, before Maxwell, none of them constituted a unified theory. Maxwell had four sets of concisely formulated (but highly weighted) laws, Maxwell managed to precisely describe the behavior and interrelationship between electric and magnetic fields.

By doing so, he turned a large number of phenomena into a single theory that can be used as a guide. Maxwell's ideas have been widely followed over the past century both in theory and in the practice of science.

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