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A comment on Richard Feynman's Blackboard at the Time of His Death (1988). Parent comment

Re:Richard Feynman's Blackboard at the Time of His Death (1988) by gitremote on Saturday February 22, 2025 @12:17AM (#43136318)
Without the 20th century restriction, she rants against the list "Einstein. Newton. Feynman."

She says, "The list should be: Newton, Maxwell, Einstein. The answer is Maxwell, if you're making this list, right? James Clerk Maxwell, his complete theory of electrodynamics, the best, most important thing to come out of the 1800s in physics. It's Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, okay? Like Feynman is great, but he's not up there. But in popular culture he is, because he's famous for being a famous physicist instead of being famous for his physics, which also, don't get me wrong, he did a lot of really good physics. I just think it's kind of weird."

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Re:Richard Feynman's Blackboard at the Time of His Death (1988) by pdonis on Saturday February 22, 2025 @01:01AM (#43136481)
I would agree that Maxwell belongs above Feynman if we're talking about modern physicists and not limiting ourselves to the 20th century.

What really amazes me is that Maxwell got as far as he did with the incredibly clunky notation he was using. Our modern notation, IIRC, is due to Heaviside, and was a huge improvement.

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