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From: Mikko <mikko.levanto@iki.fi>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.relativity
Subject: Re: The first postulate is a truism.
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:54:10 +0300
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On 2025-06-27 05:17:14 +0000, Thomas Heger said:

> Am Montag000023, 23.06.2025 um 23:09 schrieb LaurenceClarkCrossen:
> ...
>>> Jan
>> The laws of electromagnetism apply to all IRFs.
>> Maxwell's equations do not.
>> Therefore, Maxwell's equations are not laws of physics.
>> 
>> "AI Overview
>> Maxwell's Equations in Electromagnetism - GeeksforGeeks
>> Yes, Maxwell's equations are considered laws of physics. They are a set
>> of four fundamental equations that describe the behavior of electric and
>> magnetic fields, and how they are generated and influenced by charges
>> and currents. These equations are foundational to classical
>> electromagnetism and are used in various technologies like power
>> generation, electric motors, and wireless communication."
> 
> Actually this isn't true, because those four equations didn't stem from 
> Maxwell, but from Oliver Heaviside.

It is true. Regardless of the origin, "Maxwell's equations" is the
Common Language name of that set of equations.

Heaviside got the equations from Maxwell. Heaviside just identified the
most important equations among all that Maxwell had presented. In addition
Heaviside invented vectors and demonstrated that using vectors those (and
other) equations could be written in a simpler form.

> It is really important, that Maxwell himself was an 'aetherist' and 
> wanted to use quaternions.

Hamilton's quaternions had a vector part and a scalar part. But Haviside
found that the vector part alone is useful, and that vectors and scalars
can be used together without combining them into quaternions.

> Maxwell himself wrote 20 quaternion equations, which were crippled to 
> the current four equations by Gibbs and Heaviside.

Much of the rest of 20 quaternion equations are still used. They just
are written and organized differently, and are not considered as fundamental
as those known as Maxwell's equations.

-- 
Mikko