A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

Volume 2 of Maxwell's 1873 influential contribution to physics covers magnetism and electromagnetism, including the electromagnetic theory of light.

James Clerk Maxwell's influential contribution to nineteenth-century physics brought together the experimental and theoretical advances in the field of electricity and magnetism known at the time. Published in 1873, it contains Maxwell's famous equations on electromagnetic theory. Volume 2 covers magnetism and electromagnetism, including the electromagnetic theory of light.Arguably the most influential nineteenth-century scientist for twentieth-century physics, James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. A fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, Maxwell became, in 1871, the first Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. His famous equations - a set of four partial differential equations that relate the electric and magnetic fields to their sources, charge density and current density - first appeared in fully developed form in his 1873 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. This two-volume textbook brought together all the experimental and theoretical advances in the field of electricity and magnetism known at the time, and provided a methodical and graduated introduction to electromagnetic theory. Volume 2 covers magnetism and electromagnetism, including the electromagnetic theory of light, the theory of magnetic action on light, and the electric theory of magnetism.