Monday, April 28, 2014
Chapter 14: the simplest earthly place
As Faraday got older, the Thames river also deteriorated like his mind. What was once a beautiful river was now a sewer for London. The water was so bad you couldn't see half an inch into it. He was so descusted with it, he went home and wrote a letter the the times and it was published in just 2 days. Since Faraday wanted to be accepted as s something. He couldn't go back to his lab, so the Thames river was his way to be important in society. But as he grew older, so did his mind. He ended up stopping with the Thames river and ended up outlining his philosophy of education in and 1854 lecture. He stated that self education always had a place in his life and that as he advanced, he was his biggest critic. He always tried to be more and more strict.
In 1858, Faraday wanted science to be a branch of education. Four years later, he present this idea I front of the public school commissioners. He insisted that the problem of science education affected citizens of all classes.
As Faraday's mind deteriorated, he began thinking of trying to convert gravity into electricity. He though of dropping a brick from a high height and somehow it would electrify them through the air. He never was able to prove this.
In 1862, Faraday and his wife moved to a house in the ha ton court. His mind continually deteriorated. Sarah provided a safe place for Faraday's dwindling mind. Faraday sat virtually silent ina chair looking out his window. His wife tried to help his memory but he couldn't remember anything. On August 25,1867, Faraday passed away in his chair.
Chapter 13: the light unseen
In 1857, Faraday got a letter from Maxwell on "Faraday's lines of force". It was both a thrill and burdong for the aging Faraday since he could not understand it. To Maxwell, the lines of forces were all geometry, but Faraday lacked the mathematical capacity to understand this. Enegized by these ideas, he vowed to return to the lab to prove electricity and magnetic effects take time to move through space. In 1857, Faraday asked Maxwell's opinion about his speculation and he replied saying it will work. Maxwell soon got hired at the kings college and that is where he and Faraday first met face to face. In 1861, Maxwell came up with a mathematical formula that predicted the speed at which such an electromagnetic wave would travel at through space.
Chapter 12: a particle of infinite
In 1841, James Maxwell dafty started to the endinburgh academy and nobody thought he would ever amount to anything. They were wrong because as of now, Faraday was exploring the university of possiblities, and so was he. James sought to understand the workings of things. He risen to the top of his class and gotten awards in math, english, and he even published a paper on he geometry of ovals. In 1850 Maxwell decided to enter Cambridge intent on becoming a scientist. He immersed himself in home brewed experiments much like that of which Faraday started out doing. In 1854, Maxwell wrote to Thompson who had created Faraday's lines of force using math to ask for a list of books to read. It didn't take long long for Maxwell to be intruiged by faradays electricity concepts.
Chapter 11: Nothing is too wonderful to be true
Faraday was regularly removed from his work space from fatigue or nervous headaches. He started getting into the atom and what it is since nobody knew what it actually was. They all just assumed what it was because they could not see it. Faraday thought of it a a vast structure. It was to him a massless thing that was associated with force. Faraday offered a paradox regarding the nature of space and matter, specifically the distinction between an electrical insulator and conductor. He said that the inter atomic void is the only only continuous path through which electricity flows.
Chapter 10: an Excellent Days Work
After the acute attack Faraday had in 1839 that made him suspend his research, he sank into a period of depression and self enforced isolation. He suffered from low nervous attacks and memory loss so bad he couldn't finish a scentence. His condition was unpredictable. Nobody knew if he would ever return to his lab.
His wife Sarah did all she could but most of the time she took him out of the house and walked around town and went to the zoo. Faraday stopped writing letters also claiming that it was too exhausting for him. In 1845, a young researcher named William Thompson questioned Faraday and backed him why he didn't have any equations among his electricity books. Thompson also said that electricity or magnetism should have an effect on the travel of light. On august 30,1845, Faraday returned to his lab to redo an experiment he failed at nearly a decade ago to prove what the young Thompson said...
He did this by using polarized light and reflecting the glow of an oil lamp off an upright pane of glass. He then rotated the lenses until the lamps image was extinguishable. He then applied electricity to see if he could get a blackout image. In his first set of trials he disproved it but then he shifted to magnetism hoping for a different result and he succeeded. He was able to connect light and magnetism. It was called magnetism-diamagnetism.
Chapter 9: a cage of his own
Faraday soon left the electrochemical realm and turned toward electrostatic. His interests in electrostatics stemmed from his unease with conventional explanation of electrostatic phenomenon. His plan of attack was to demonstrate that all electrostatic phenomenons are reducible to his vision of the induction process or just the redistribution of charged molecules. In his lab he applied charge to various metal vessels. He found that the charge stayed to the outside of each vessel. So he made a giant 12x12x12 wood frame and covered it with copper and tin foil. He then put it on display, struck it with a high voltage static shock when he was in it to show what he ment. When he was in his 50s Faraday was plagued by nervous headaches. He also complained about confusion and started having memory loss. On September 14, 1840, Faraday walked out of his lab not k owing if he would ever return.
Chapter 8; Trial and Pleasure
Faradays initial report on electromagnetic induction was read before the royal society on November 24, 1831. He was so excited but didn't realize the Italians had done the exact same experiment. Faraday was yet again thought to be plaigerizing. It was deja vu all over again for Faraday. He learned a lesson...no longer would he release results prior to his publication. He soon stated that of magnetic lines of force, they occupy space both within and around a magnet. He showed this but pouring iron filling on a paper with a magnet over it.
Faraday learned induction requires either relative motion between a conductor and a magnet or else a change in the magnetic strength around a conductor. He later tried to convert gravity into electricity but had no luck with it. Although Faraday was worldwide known to be a experimenter, his credentials a a theorist weren't as great.
Faraday tried to induce electricity using the worlds largest magnet...itself. think of it as a compass needle. He was actually able to generate a detectable electric current by flipping a large wire loop in his lab. He needed to have a more conductive material between it. He turned to water instead on metal, but even with many experiments, he was never successful in this.
He soon started in electrical conductivity. The work was based on the Idea that water conducts electricity but ice doesn't. Any electricity that passed through water would separate it into hydrogen and oxygen but ice wouldn't because its solid. Faraday announced a series of new electrochemical terms such as electrode, anode, cathode, ion, electrolyte, electrolysis, and more.
The name Faraday had become synonymous with discovery.
Chapter 7: a twitch of the needle
By 1831, Faraday had reached worldwide fame. He was also invited by the royal society to give a lecture in 1829 at their annual bakerin. His salary remained at 100#s a year but his side buisness(commercial chemistry analysis) had swelled to 1000#s a year in 1830. He soon went on a new quest about magnetism arising from electricity. By the early 1800s, there was 2 main ways of producing electricity. They were friction like a static shock machine and chemically like a battery. Faraday thought of an experimental way to make electricity. It was induction. It was draw upon an object's innate electrical or magnetic essence to stimulate current in and adjacent wire. Faraday tried doing this experiment several times but failed every time. One day he tried it again using a 6" iron ring connected to a battery an found that it twitched when he connected it. He eventually experimented with different windings and different magnets to change how much he needle jumped.
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