Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
James Clerk Maxwell developed the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism, and introduced statistical methods to the kinetic theory of gases and thermodynamics. Arguably the nineteenth-century scientist who exerted the greatest influence on twentieth-century science, his work had widespread significance in a variety of fields, including the development of relativity and quantum mechanics. The importance of Maxwell's work is ranked with that of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955)....

