Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (September 22, 1791 - August 25, 1867) was a British physicist and chemist whose research laid the foundation for electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He is best known for discovering electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis. His invention of the electric generator and his work on the electromagnetic field directly influenced the development of modern electrical technology. Despite having little formal education, Faraday was a brilliant experimenter and a gifted science communicator, also contributing to public understanding through his famous Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. His scientific legacy is vast, and his name lives on in the unit of electrical capacitance: the farad.
Quotes
- ALL THIS IS A DREAM. Still examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature; and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency.
- I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it.
- Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds.
- I was at first almost frightened when I saw such mathematical force made to bear upon the subject, and then wondered to see that the subject stood it so well.
- But still try, for who knows what is possible...
- Among those points of self-education which take up the form of mental discipline, there is one of great importance, and, moreover, difficult to deal with, because it involves an internal conflict, and equally touches our vanity and our ease. It consists in the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for, and the necessity of resistance to these desires.
- The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.