Review: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell

This is a review of the biographical account of James Clerk Maxwell by his long time friend, Lewis Campbell.

Very few men achieve the range of things that Maxwell did in his short life. He died at merely forty eight years of age, from the same cancer that took his mother(at exactly the same age).

The book is pretty disordered(unedited?) from today's standards. Many letters(to and from Maxwell) are interspersed with the text that narrates his life. It made a very poor reading experience, as you lost the train of thought to examine the contents of the letter. Maybe the author tried to preserve the memory of Maxwell in pristine form. Perhaps, he thought the letters would give a true window of the inner workings of Maxwell's mind.

Regardless of the setup of the book, it does true justice by recording very minute details of Maxwell's life. We see a boy of eight, asking endless questions. We see his playfulness in the natural surroundings of Glenlair where he grew up. We see an amazing father-son relationship - where the duo fuelled each other's curiosity. We see his talents surfacing, as he rediscovers Descartes' curves around the age of fourteen. His talents growing steadily as he passed through school and college. His letters which showed the diverse topics on which he liked to meditate.

Another point of interest was Maxwell's religiosity. He was a devout Christian. He enjoyed taking part in theological discussions and kept a religious outlook in friendship as well as marriage. It might seem very strange that a scientist of such calibre is also capable of keeping faith.

Time and again, the letters and the author also show that Maxwell was a very kind man. He used his library card to lend numerous books to his students(owing to the guilt that he was not a good lecturer). Even in the extreme pain of his last illness, he worried endlessly about his wife's welfare. Friends, colleagues and family members remember that Maxwell went out of his way to not hurt others.

Another deficit of the book seems the lack of methodical treatment of Maxwell's scientific achievements. Letters don't give a good idea because of obscure terminologies and the difference in understanding between the two people who were communicating. I hope someone would do the necessary research for scientific biography of Maxwell, as Maxwell did for Henry Cavendish in his later years.

Certainly as a mere beginner in science, I might not realise the full scope of Maxwell's work - from statistical mechanics to colour theory to electromagnetism. I might also like the book better, if I re-read it in the coming years.

I give three and a half stars out of five to the book. Highly recommended for those who like to understand the blossoming of scientific ideas along the arrow of time.

My current philosophical viewpoint on physics

In a way, nature is so mysterious that things we see and the explanations we give, might not be the true picture at all. How do we know nature’s true properties? Let’s hold this line as it will divert to too much philosophy.

As per Ernst Mach, a scientific theory must be economical, in terms of ideas it uses. Observed values(like splitting of spectral lines) should be connected with mathematical ideas to arrive at conclusions(as tested by experiment). When Schrodinger published his wave mechanics, Heisenberg did the same with his matrix mechanics. The conclusions arrived at were equivalent. Yet, Schrodinger has used continuum/wave ideas whereas Heisenberg has just crunched the numbers. As we can hardly “observe” waves inside an atom, Ernst Mach would have preferred Heisenberg’s theory.

Though Schrodinger and Heisenberg were nice on the surface, they criticised each other in personal letters. Schrodinger wrote to Lorentz that ideas of quantum jumps were “monstrous”. Young Heisenberg wrote Pauli that the continuum ideas looked “bullshit”. When at an after-lecture session, Heisenberg asked Schrodinger how he supposes to explain photoelectric effect and blackbody radiation; Willy Wien treated as if to throw him out. Wien angrily said, “Young man. These effects will be duly explained”.

With the advent of quantum mechanics, physics already entered a far-abstract realm. Old-school physicists tended to side with Schrodinger, as he preserved the semi-classical nature of physics they were trained in. Younger generation physicists(like Pauli, Dirac and Heisenberg) were finally breaking all the old-school ideas. 

Even after decades, the philosophical discussions continue. String theory, Standard Model of particles, cosmology and host of other stuff. Personally, I don’t have the skill-set to follow all these discussions. It feels that the journey has become obscure again.

(inspired by Walter Moore’s biography of Schrodinger)

Generosity

Some people due to their good-naturedness can completely transform a person’s life.

For Enrico Fermi, it was Adolfo Amidei. Amidei was the colleague of Fermi’s father at the railways. He followed science and mathematics, and Fermi came to know about it. The boy - merely thirteen years old - introduced himself by asking a question about projective geometry. Subsequently, Amidei was deeply impressed and decided to guide Fermi's education. He supplied the boy with books - which progressively got advanced over the years. The boy returned the books ceremoniously, digesting all the information.

Amidei also guided Fermi to his college-level education, by selecting the school he should go too. While browsing the entrance exam requirements, Amidei declared that Fermi knew everything already, and he was going to achieve the first position. It was even more dramatic than that.

The entrance exam for Scuola Normale Superiore(at Pisa) had a section on essays. Enrico Fermi’s theme was “Characteristics of Sound” - something that a high school student should know about. Fermi started with a simple introduction and moved to full-blown differential equation of a vibrating rod. Additionally, he solved it using Fourier analysis, finding the eigenvalues and eigenfrequencies. The examiner was so shocked while looking at the essay that he personally decided to meet the student. Fermi was told that he will become a great scientist. Further, the examiner mentioned that his entrance to the school was guaranteed - it was nearly impossible that other students even came close to him. The examiner was right on both accounts - Enrico Fermi went on to do great things.

In a way, Amidei’s generosity to a schoolboy changed the world.

P.S: This post was inspired by Emelio Segre’s biography. Amidei also finds mention in a memoir written by Fermi’s wife, Laura.

Review: Leadership and Self-Deception

Leadership and Self-Deception is a book from Arbinger Institute. As the name suggests, it is targeted towards self-improvement. A personal review follows of the absolutely brilliant book.

Some books are so good that you just thank your fate(free will?) that they came your way.

I knew there was a problem. I commute to office on my bicycle. Bangalore traffic is hellish, and I freely used abuses(or showed finger) while dodging innumerable cars. Again at office, I felt my work was not meeting the mark at all. I wrote poor code and failed deadlines. Back at my apartment, I couldn't focus at all on my private studies(physics, literature, and the piano). At the gym, I continuously cursed the irresponsible people in my head. All these things made my life miserable and I blamed the entire world for my condition. I felt so stressed that it felt like my head will burst with anger and frustration.

Then, I came across this book from Arbinger Institute. The premise was simple - we self-deceive ourselves by viewing other people as objects. We see only ourselves as important. We inflate our own virtues and put the entire blame on other people. Rather than working towards improving the situation, we resort to blame game and showing everyone their own place. The condition has been termed as being "in-the-box".

The book clearly shows how we enter the box. It goes on to explain why we continue to live in the box, make life miserable for us and others. It explains why our colleagues, friends and family members seem so irritating to deal with. The negative effects are all together familiar - our relations along with our productivity goes down.

Finally, the book specifies a way to get out of the box. The way out is simple - instead of focusing on ourselves, we focus on others and treat them as people. Further, it is also explains how to stay out of the box. 

This book is highly recommended for everyone. Simply written and concise in its explanations. It will help you being a better manager, partner, husband, friend - you name it. If you feel that this book really helped you, pass it to your close ones.

Next book to read - The Anatomy of Peace.

On learning Physics

"Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.”
— Eugene Paul Wigner

You want to understand the workings of the world, but you lack the skill-set as well as the mental maturity to ask and pursue questions. Maths was always hard for you and you hated yourself for that. Increasingly, physics also turned mathematical where you couldn't even hope to use your intuition. You realise that there’s no other way other than to use up decades of your life. There will be even more physics as you grow older but you have to do your best now. All you can hope is that the future will reward you with some glimpses of truth.

For instance, take the way Feynman concluded his lecture on resonance(Feynman lectures - Vol. I). He wanted to share the examples of oscillations in nature. But instead of giving usual (random) examples from a textbook, he talked about going to his study and pulling out books from the shelves. He tried to find if there are graphs depicting resonance. Lo, behold! There are. How our atmosphere oscillates due to Moon’s gravitational pull. How sound from Krakatoa volcanic eruption oscillated the entire atmosphere. How common salt crystals vibrate due to infrared radiation. How protons of different energies yield different amounts of gamma radiation on hitting an atomic nucleus. There were also examples regarding paramagnetic materials and subatomic particle reactions(which I didn’t understand). Feynman also mentioned that it is not hard to find an example of resonance in every single version of Physical Review Letters.

Let’s revisit the context. All those examples were from arbitrary books, concerning a wide range of matters. Going a bit further, it is quite easy to deduce that some people actually thought about those things. They then proceeded to examine those processes as well.

Well, the next question simply is  - how to reach that level of thinking? There’s no way other than to study hard and read widely. Understanding experiments and the motivation behind them. And, following how those questions came to be asked in the first place(aka history).

Schools and colleges fail to address the above by focussing on results and deadlines. It becomes necessary then to unlearn the way you were moulded by years of academia. You have to become original and follow learning in the way it should be done - follow questions as they come to you. Those questions will lead to even more questions, and you will learn in the way. More importantly, you will begin to have fun.

That’s my two cents for now. As I am young and fairly ignorant, please feel free to add comments/suggestions. If you want to talk to me about what I wrote, please do connect on private channels.

On bullshit(with the naive life-sketch of a reformer)

Bullshit and its disgusting effects on the society can be easily understood, if one refers to the story of Rammohan Banerjee(I will drop the “Raja” and “Roy” titles). I want to emphasise on his stance against Sati-Pratha and how he pressurised the colonial government to abolish it.

Imagine that era of Bengal. Orthodox Hindus who venerated Brahmins and whatever they told. Evils of casteism, which penetrated every aspect of society. Yet one act - the burning of widows, shows the nadir of everything that was wrong with society. I will get back to it.

As per Pauranic stories - Shiva’s wife, Sati self-immolated herself. She couldn’t take repeated insults of her husband from her father. Shiva was extremely enraged at the act and killed his father-in-law. That’s the essence of the story. If you’re a normal person, you will think of it as just another story and forget about it.

But religion is altogether a different game. It is so creepy and insidious that if you’re not vigilant, it can do things to you. I don’t know at what point of time, the above story took the form of a tradition. A woman becomes a widow. Most probably a young widow, because of child-marriage. Then, she is tied to the funeral pyre of her husband. The pyre is ignited. And people watch her die in agony and screams.

Now, this tradition might be going for a thousand years when Rammohan came about. And, no one even did a thing about it! They just considered it as a law of society and moved on with their lives.

Rammohan had an eye for bullshit. He recognised that this is evil and shouldn’t continue. So, he used the Britishers to enact a law banning the tradition. Did he face any problem? Of course. Opposition from his parents(who were Brahmins) and even attacks on his life. But, Rammohan was not a coward. He pressed on and finally got the law passed.

Rammohan was against idol-worship(probably due to influences of Abrahamic religions like Islam and Christianity). So, he started Brahmo Samaj. I think, he must have thought about atheism but couldn’t reject all the religious influences on him. Therefore, he opened the society anyway.

                                                                     (Portrait Credit: Wikipedia)

So even Rammohan was not untouched by bullshit. He still chose a God, though he had no evidences for one. I guess, we shouldn’t blame him that much. He is still a hero. He did a lot of good by his acts of defiance. How many of us have done a good thing in our lives?

So, what do we learn from this story? We learn that bullshit should be crushed whenever detected. Bullshit is against progress and has lots of horrifying consequences. Even worse, you may not even realise that you’re in deep shit. To put it politely.

For a more descriptive and well-written take on bullshit, one should check out Carl Sagan’s The Fine Art of Baloney Detection. One can even register for an awesome course here(by University of Washington).

As a final note, try to become another Rammohan. Piss off people who spread and indulge in bullshit. Demand evidence for everything you hear and think. Even if you lead a hard life, know that your contributions will make the world a better place.

All hail Objectivity!

Got a portable grand piano!

Brace electronics. Technology lets you have a grand piano on your lap.

Few days ago, I bought a Yamaha PSR-E353 keyboard.

With a half decade of ups and downs with Indian classical music, followed by another gap of around seven years - I have returned back to this instrument. And this time, I am going to start with western styles.

I am currently trying to learn music theory from this course. Everyday, I try to play the keyboard as well. Hopefully, I will get a decent stand in a few years.