Article ID: CBB001022981

Beyond Electromagnetic and Mechanical World-Views: J. Larmor's Models of Matter and Energy in the Early 1890s (2011)

unapi

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, the relationship between matter and energy was widely debated, mainly in the context of electromagnetic theories. In the 1880s and early in the 1890s, Larmor swung between Helmholtz and Maxwell's theoretical models. In 1893, he put forward a renewed Maxwellian approach centred around the relationships between electricity and matter, and between electric and chemical phenomena. Both the electromagnetic theory and the theory of matter were based on the assumption of a rotationally elastic aether. In 1894, he introduced the `electron', namely a subatomic unit of matter and electric charge, stemming from a continuous aether as a knot of rotational energy. He tried to connect continuous models to discrete models; he tried to connect the intimate nature of matter to the intimate nature of energy. In particular, he aimed at unifying physics, starting from a primitive medium, whose motions could produce regular structures and regular perturbations. New bold hypotheses, like electrons' `steady motion' inside atoms, were the price Larmor had to pay for that integration. I find that Larmor's theoretical contribution cannot be qualified as an electromagnetic world-view, just because he tried to go beyond a purely mechanical or a purely electromagnetic foundation of physics.

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Authors & Contributors
Pelosi, Giuseppe
Stefano Selleri
John Lekner
Francesco Nappo
Marmottini, Donatella
D'Agostino, Salvo
Concepts
Electromagnetism
Physics
Models and modeling in science
Electricity; magnetism
Science education and teaching
Ether
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
England
Scotland
Germany
Europe
Tuscany (Italy)
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