Worldviews, Wranglers, and the

Making of Theoretical Physicists

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8.225 / STS.042, Physics in the 20th Century

Professor David Kaiser, 14 September 2020

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1. Maxwell’s Equations,
Then and Now

2. Training Cambridge
Wranglers
3. The Electromagnetic
Worldview

4. Institutions and
Theorists

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Recap: Faraday, Thomson, Maxwell
Michael Faraday had little formal education; he was first
apprenticed as a bookbinder, and then as a natural philosopher at
the Royal Institution.
Partly inspired by his Sandemanian faith, he was fascinated by
the interconvertibility of forces and an underlying unity of nature — a
unity made possible by an all-pervasive luminiferous ether.
He introduced lines of force and then fields to characterize the
state of the ether. In place of Newtonian “action at a distance,”
Faraday delivering Royal Institution Faraday emphasized local effects. The birth of field theory!
“Christmas Lecture,” 1855
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William Thomson and James Clerk Maxwell trained in mathematics

at Cambridge University in the 1840s-50s. They formalized many of
Faraday’s ideas, and found mathematical analogies between
electromagnetic phenomena and mechanics: a “mechanical worldview.”
Maxwell found that disturbances in the ether propagated at the speed
of light: light was just “transverse undulations” of E and B in the ether.
Cambridge University, King’s Parade, ca. 1870
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Maxwell’s Equations, Then and Now
In his two-volume 1873 Treatise, Maxwell described his new
theory of electricity and magnetism. He introduced what we call
“Maxwell’s equations,” in full Cartesian-component form.

A later Maxwellian, Oliver Heaviside,

invented vector notation (E, B, div,
grad, curl) expressly to ease the
manipulation of Maxwell’s huge Treatise!
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Maxwell’s Equations, Then and Now
More than just differences in notation. To Maxwell and his peers,
Maxwell’s equations were founded on a fundamentally different idea of
what the world is made of than our modern views.
To us, Maxwell’s equations describe the behavior
of fundamental charged particles (electrons, ions).
Electric charge is conserved: a fixed amount of
charge is attached to each microscopic charge-
carrier. Electric current is nothing more than
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To Maxwell, none of this was true! (The electron wasn’t discovered for another 20 years after
publication of his Treatise.) To the Maxwellians, the world was a continuum, not a collection of
discrete point particles. They were “inverted atomists”: “Instead of building the world out of
atoms, they built atoms out of the world.” (Buchwald)

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Maxwell’s Equations, Then and Now
To the Maxwellians, charge could drift in and out
of existence, depending on the state of the medium.
e1 , s1 e2 , s2 It was a local manifestation of dissipative strains in
the ether.
+V -V Charge as surface effect: two different materials fill the
space between two conducting plates. The applied
voltage puts the underlying ether under tension. The
potential energy stored in the ether would be
dissipated at a rate controlled by the local medium’s
elastic capacity [dielectric constant] and conducting capacity
[conductivity]. Dissipation rate: t = e/s.
S (surface charge) e: how easy is it to store potential energy
s: how easy is it to release the stored tension

conducting plates with

opposite voltages applied
Maxwell’s Equations, Then and Now
To the Maxwellians, charge could drift in and out
of existence, depending on the state of the medium.
e1 , s1 e2 , s2 It was a local manifestation of dissipative strains in
the ether.
+V -V
We would say: both materials consist of
fundamental charges, which can be moved around or
polarized when the voltages are applied, leading to a
surface charge S. The parameters e and s
characterize how easily the fundamental charges can
be rearranged.

S (surface charge) For us, charge comes first. For the Maxwellians, charge
was a secondary effect of the state of the medium.

conducting plates with

opposite voltages applied
Maxwell Summary
Although we still use “Maxwell’s Equations” (thank you,
Oliver Heaviside!), the way we interpret those equations is almost
exactly the opposite of how the Maxwellians did.

For Maxwell, like Faraday and Thomson, the ether came first. Theirs
was a mechanical worldview. Continuity was the key: all of physics came
down to the behavior of a continuous elastic medium, which supported
contiguous local actions. No point particles, no fundamental charges —
all (time-varying) states of the ether.

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Questions?

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Training Cambridge Wranglers
Michael Faraday had practically no mathematical training. By the mid-19th
century, there began a massive shift in the training of natural philosophers,
centered at Cambridge University.
New shift to paper and written examinations.
Students previously had to bring their own slate,
chalk, compass, and ruler for lessons in Euclid —
and then dispute geometrical proofs orally, in Latin!

Oral disputation (in Latin), Cambridge,

early 19th century
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In place of a public oral disputation, students now took a
silent, timed problem-solving exam on paper. Their entire
undergraduate studies culminated in a grueling, 3-day written
exam that determined their graduation ranking: the
Mathematical Tripos exam.
Written “Tripos” examination at Cambridge, mid-19th century
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Training Cambridge Wranglers

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Rank-ordered results of the Tripos were published in

the newspapers. The top scorers were called
“wranglers.” First place: “Senior Wrangler.” (Both
Thomson and Maxwell were Second Wranglers.)
Written “Tripos” examination at Cambridge, mid-19th century
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James Ward’s 1875 diary:

1. To be out of bed by 7:35 (or on Sundays 8:45)

2. To do 5 hours work before hall [lunch]
3. At least one hours [athletic] exercise after hall
4. Three hours work after hall
5. Finish work by 11 and be in bed by 11:30 (except on Saturday when it is 12)
6. A fine of 3d to be paid for the first rule broken on any day and 1d every other
rule broken on the same day
7. A halfpenny to be allowed out of the fund to every member waking another
between 6:35 and 7:35 on weekdays and between 7:45 and 8:45 on Sundays
8. Work before 8am may count either for morning or evening work of the day
9. Time spent at Church Society meeting counts for half the same time’s work and
also allows the member attending to work till 11:30 and stay up till 12
10. These rules binding till further notice and any alteration of them requires
unanimity.

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Solve for the motion of a pendulum ...

L “natural frequency”: “Simple harmonic oscillator”:

w2 = g / L

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Solve for the motion of a pendulum ...

If the length of the pendulum changes periodically,

L (t) then we must solve the Mathieu Equation:
pendulum of
varying length

Complicated behavior: periodic oscillations

for some values of the parameters; exponential
instabilities for other values...

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Training Cambridge Wranglers
This intense mathematical training was not only for would-be physicists; it
was considered an ideal way to discipline the mind for everyone! As the British
Empire expanded rapidly, there was a need for large numbers of disciplined
civil servants. If they could master the Mathieu equation on a timed exam,
they could handle complex problems of economics, governance, logistics...

As a side effect, a critical mass grew of Tripos-trained

scholars who actually sought a scientific career. The
Maxwellians came mostly from this Cambridge Tripos
tradition.

The professionalization of mathematically trained

physicists in Britain was driven in part by the demands
of empire: supplying research problems (like telegraphy)
and prioritizing an elite educational infrastructure.
Written “Tripos” examination at Cambridge, mid-19th century
Image is in the public domain.

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Questions?

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Electromagnetic Worldview
Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory became
popular on the Continent, especially in the late
1880s, after Heinrich Hertz successfully generated
and detected “Maxwell waves” in what we would
now call the radio portion of the spectrum.

Yet in Germany, most physicists did not

interpret Maxwell’s equations the same way that
the British Maxwellians did — another divide over
Maxwell’s equations, this time across space and not
Heinrich Hertz’s 1888 apparatus, demonstrating Maxwellian waves just over time.
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Whereas the British considered electromagnetic effects to be grounded in a mechanical ether,

to the Germans, electromagnetic effects came to seem truly fundamental: perhaps mechanics
itself was nothing but applied electromagnetism. An Electromagnetic Worldview.

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Electromagnetic Worldview
Consider the origin of mass. Instead of assuming that objects have some mass (based on
their mechanical composition), what if mass itself arose from electromagnetic interactions?

A hydrodynamical analogy: the kinetic energy T of a body of

mass m0 moving with velocity v through an incompressible fluid
(like dragging a beach ball under water).

outside the medium within the medium

Within the medium, the ball’s motion may be described by an effective mass, meff = m0 + m’,
where m’ is the mass of the displaced fluid.

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Electromagnetic Worldview
Now consider an electrically charged object in motion, interacting with its
own electric and magnetic fields. The self-field effects act like a fluid, generating
resistance to changes in the object’s motion.

µ = magnetic permeability of the medium

Effective mass: a = radius of the charged object

But unlike the beach ball, an electric charge can never be “outside” of its “medium” (its
self-field). So what if m0 = 0, and all mass arose from electromagnetic effects?

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Electromagnetic Worldview
Now consider an electrically charged object in motion, interacting with its
own electric and magnetic fields. The self-field effects act like a fluid, generating
resistance to changes in the object’s motion.

q ibilit y o f an
: “ th e p oss
ie n , 19 00 e ch an ic s”
Wilhelm W tio n fo rm
ti c foun da
agn e
electrom
µ = magnetic permeability of the medium
Effective mass: a = radius of the charged object

But unlike the beach ball, an electric charge can never be “outside” of its “medium” (its
self-field). So what if m0 = 0, and all mass arose from electromagnetic effects?

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Questions?

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“Theoretical Physicist”?

Lagrange

Galileo

Maxwell

Newton Laplace

“mathematician,” “mathematician,”
“physicist”
“philosopher” “astronomer”

1600s 1700s 1800s

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“Theoretical Physicist”
German university system: a single “Ordinarius” professor in
a given field. In physics, the ordinarius was in charge of all
experimental apparatus for the department.

After German unification in 1871, Röntgen laboratory, Würtzberg

the country underwent rapid Image is in the public domain.
industrialization … … which called for the rapid
training of new physics teachers
for secondary schools.

Krupp Steelworks
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information, see https://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/ Natural Sciences lecture hall, 1876
Image is in the public domain.

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“Theoretical Physicist”
German university system: a single “Ordinarius” professor in
a given field. In physics, the ordinarius was in charge of all
experimental apparatus for the department.
Rapid growth of junior-faculty
Röntgen laboratory, Würtzberg
ranks (“extraordinarius” But the extraordinarius Image is in the public domain.
professors) to teach the new faculty only had access to During the 1880s and 1890s,
classes. pencil and paper.
“theoretical physicist” became a
recognized specialty, and job title.

Natural Sciences lecture hall, 1876 Kirchhoff

Einstein’s Zürich notebook, 1912 Image is in the public domain.
Image is in the public domain. Planck
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use/
“Theoretical Physicist”
In place of British empire-building as one main route to building up a
community of mathematically trained theoretical physicists (Tripos exam!), in
Germany the field of theoretical physics took root in a very different institutional
context: a state-run university system with a tight limit on the highest-ranking
positions.

Changing industrialization priorities and a dramatic population increase during

the mid-19th century created a bulge of lower-ranked, younger scholars who had
no access to experimental equipment.

Within a generation, they had created their own research journals and institutes,
and even (by the 1890s) the first Ordinarius professorships in “theoretical physics.”

It was within this institutional context in which much of modern physics —

relativity and quantum theory — was crafted.

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STS.042J / 8.225J Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century

Fall 2020

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