Faraday as a Discoverer
Tyndall, John, 1820-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.9- Word count
- 233K words
- Chapters
- 24
Tags
English Originals Scientists Pursuit of TruthElectromagnetismScience HistoryScience EnlightenmentPortrait GalleryMentorshipCuriosityBiographical NarrativeScience ClassicVictorian EraSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Faraday as a Discoverer by John TyndallAuthor: Tyndall, John, 1820-1893,Language: English, Class: QC: Science: Physics, Release Date: Mar 1, 1998Editor's review
This book is John Tyndall's biographical appraisal of Michael Faraday, focused on Faraday's working methods and scientific spirit as an experimental discoverer. Unlike an ordinary life story, it is written by a fellow scientist who could observe Faraday's experimental thinking, his sensitivity to phenomena, and his movement from experiment to theory at close range. The线索 of discoveries recorded in the book, such as electromagnetic induction and the laws of electrolysis, give readers a sense of what nineteenth-century scientific research was like on the ground. The prose carries the gravity and enthusiasm of Victorian scientific writing; it is both a source for the history of science and a tribute from a contemporary to a scientific model. It suits readers looking for an introduction to Faraday the man and his science, and also those interested in scientific method and the experimental tradition who want to read slowly in their spare time. Readers should keep its period perspective in mind: the author's assessment of Faraday is visibly reverent and should not be taken as a wholly neutral modern history of science.Who it's for
A good fit for
- General readers who want to learn about Faraday's life and scientific contributions
- Those interested in nineteenth-century physics and the tradition of experimental science
- Teachers and popular-science writers in need of material on a scientific model
- Readers who want to understand Faraday from the perspective of a contemporary scientist
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting a systematic physics textbook or formula derivations
- Professional scholars hoping for modern critical history of science
- Readers with limited English who need a Chinese translation
Reading tips
- Read the chapters on Faraday's main discoveries first, then return to the author's assessment of his character and working methods.
- Read alongside a basic electromagnetism textbook to understand the experimental background mentioned in the book.
- Compare the author's assessment with later histories of science and note the limits of his reverent perspective.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this book Faraday's autobiography?
No. It was written by the physicist John Tyndall and is an appraisal-style biography of Faraday as a scientific discoverer, carrying a contemporary scientist's observational perspective and admiration; it is not Faraday's own account.Can I read this book without a physics background?
Yes. The book focuses on Faraday's process of discovery and his scientific spirit rather than formula derivations, so general readers can follow the gist; but to grasp topics such as electromagnetic induction in depth, some basic physics would help.What is the edition situation of this book?
This entry is the English electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg. It is a public-domain eBook in English, available through the Project Gutenberg platform and suitable for reading on electronic devices or printing.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Tyndall, John, 1820-1893 AuthorJohn Tyndall (1820–1893) was a nineteenth-century British physicist and writer of popular science. Six of his works are held here, spanning glacier studies and scientific lectures: alongside The Glaciers of the Alps and Hours of Exercise in the Alps, which combine field observation with the experience of mountaineering, there are lucid lecture works such as Six Lectures on Light and Sound, as well as Faraday as a Discoverer and the essays collected in Fragments of Science, which discuss scientific figures and scientific questions. His writing joins the rigour of an experimenter with the clarity of a lecturer, explaining natural phenomena through first-hand observation and accessible language, and is representative of Victorian science communication. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.