If there is little controversy about who the top two scientific communities in physics are, most people will choose Newton and Einstein. If you want to say who is the third scientist, many people will be controversial, but Maxwell is definitely one of the most recognized.
Many people who have little exposure to physics do not know maxwell's name, because his results are difficult for ordinary people to understand, and there are no popular conclusions (such as from special relativity, we know that moving objects become shorter), but physics majors know Maxwell's important position in physics. If you know about his contributions to physics, then I think he deserves to be selected as one of the top physicists.
Maxwell (1831–1879) was a British physicist and mathematician. Founder of classical electrodynamics and statistical physics. The masterpiece "On Electricity and Magnetism" is the most important physical classic after Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", which unified electricity, magnetism and light.
Until then, it was not clear what light really was, nor would it be associated with electromagnetic waves. This also directly laid the foundation for the development of Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Maxwell's contributions include:
1. He proposed the theory of electromagnetic fields, predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, and transmitted at the speed of light, predicting that light is a kind of electromagnetic wave. Radio technology developed rapidly on this basis.
Maxwell's equations are the foundation of electromagnetism, and we will focus on its contents and results in the next part.
2. Prepare for the establishment of the Cavendish Laboratory, the first professional national physical laboratory in the United Kingdom, and when it was its director, it was developed into a world-class laboratory. The masters are gathered and the results are fruitful.
3. Gas kinematics, deriving the percentage formula of molecules moving at a certain speed in a known gas.
4. Theoretical analysis of Saturn's rings. Prove that the solid ring hypothesis does not hold.
5. Promote the method of measuring stress using polarized light
Maxwell threw out his first scientific research paper at the age of 15, and he was a proper genius scholar, ranking among the best from an early age!
In 1855, he published On Faraday's Line of Force.
In 1862, he published On the Lines of Force in Physics.
In 1863, he published "On the Basic Relationship of Electrical Quantities"
In 1864, he published The Dynamic Theory of Electromagnetic Fields.
In 1865, he published The Dynamic Theory of Electromagnetic Fields.
In 1873, he published The General Theory of Electromagnetism.
Maxwell's greatest contribution was Maxwell's system of equations. He was a figure between Newton and Einstein.