The Advanced Physics Series: Einstein’s Heroes: Newton, Faraday and Maxwell

One of a series of lectures/demonstrations in the Advanced Physics Series for physics teachers produced in conjunction with the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Robyn Arianrhod, a writer and mathematician at Monash University takes us on a remarkable journey as she traces the connections between the development of electrodynamics by Faraday and Maxwell, and Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.  Along the way, she looks at the roles both  mathematics and experimentation have played in establishing these key areas of modern physics.

Based on Dr Arianrhod’s recent book Einstein’s Heroes, this lecture provides an interesting approach for the teaching of these topics.

Chapters:

•    Introduction
•    The theory of gravity
•    The role of mathematics
•    The controversy about electromagnetism
•    Michael Faraday
•    James Clerk Maxwell
•    Maxwell’s equations
•    Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light
•    Special relativity
•    Lorentz transformations
•    Theory and experiment
•    The Hertz experiment: discovery of electromagnetic waves