MICHAEL FARADAY

Michael Faraday was faced with supporting a family while still attempting to gain an education by teaching himself and attending lectures. Surely this is a difficult balance to keep, but his perseverance allowed him to surpass his job as a book binder and find a connection between electricity and magnetism. Thus, the Law of Electromagnetic Induction is discovered. Faraday should be respected for his discovery, but more so for the terms in which he described it. He was of the first to make his law understandable to the common person, instead of riddled with mathematical jargon that only the highest scholars could comprehend. I personally admire his move towards simplicity with a much more than letting on complex idea. The average joe was then able to comprehend and grasp the usefulness of it.

DANIEL BERNOULLI

Admittedly, I had not heard of Daniel Bernoulli until now. His breakthrough in hydrodynamics is truly marvelous and is unfortunately not widely known. Society manages to unfairly overlook this man and many others whose work make many luxuries possible. What struck me most of all though had little to do with his education and research, but more to do with his father. Johann Bernoulli ignited a passion in his son and would later extinguish it. How does one introduce your child to mathematics, let him find pleasure in it, then express that you never wanted them to be a mathematician? Furthermore, how do you steal credit from your son and harbor such jealousy towards him? With a father like Johann it is clear to see how Daniel lost his passion. Daniel’s composure though is admirable, as my parents behaving in such a way would have crushed me.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

Isaac Newton endured several attacks towards his self esteem, which only made him try harder and become one of the most brilliant and devoted men to ever live. Brilliance in the form of his discovery on gravity and devotion regarding his religion as well as his need to strive to be all he could be. Science and religion, though, have always clashed. People find science’s purpose to disprove religion, but Newton managed to blend the two so he could grace the world with such a valued concept. Most amazing to me would be the ideas that were sparked from the falling of an apple; who would have known? This just shows that everyday occurrences can spark an epiphany and alter the world’s perception.

Rudolf Clausius- An Unprofitable Experience

For some reason, this chapter of the book seemed like it was the most important and most interesting to me. It seemed like it had more meaning, and made the reader think more. The whole concept of life and death and how it was all connected to his studies about heat really caught my attention and made me want to read on because it was different than the others. Clausius started his life with a challenge and continued to have difficulties as he grew. He grew u without a mother which must have been extremely hard. But it didn't stop him from doing other things that he liked in life and being successful. He dedicated his studies and his life to heat. And he used that to explain life and death, which had played a great role in his life.

Daniel Bernoulli

Inspired by the man he looked up to to follow in his footsteps was the jealous egotistical man Johann Bernoulli, Daniels father. His father was one of those self centered guys who had too much pride for his own good and wanted to be better than everyone else, even his own son. It is because of this that Daniel and his father never had the best relationship with one another. Even still Daniel respected his father; he even credited him in the book he wrote. Yet his father still took credit for Daniel’s theory of hydrodynamics, which is when Daniel decided he had had enough of his father being selfish and he gave up on math. I think that it is such a shame that his father’s greed and jealousy took Daniel over and made him give up something that we was clearly brilliant at, I mean if he was working with Isaac Newton he must be a genius.

Michael Faraday

The world is now an electric world, basically everything around us now run on electricity. In my opinion Faraday was a very well motivated man that had a strong desire to push himself further and further. For example he taught himself to read which eventually lead to his interest in electricity. All while trying very hard to support his family he attended lectures to broaden his knowledge. Then he had the desire for more knowledge and of course began to question certain things. He started experimenting with magnets and discovered that the increase the rate of the magnets force the greater the amount of electricity would be created. This is better known as the theory of the Law of Electromagnetic Induction. Without this discovery I think that we may still be living in the dark, making his equation and discovery priceless.

Rudolf Clausius

Personally prior to reading this book I had never heard of Clausius, but I have heard of the law of conservation of energy. He discovered that it is possible to change one type of energy to another, for example chemical energy to thermal energy. Having lost his mother not long after his birth and true love later on in life he continued to discover new things. I think that the loss of his mother early on in his life caused him to focus more on his work rather than other things, and when his love died I think it probably only made him focus more and work harder to make discoveries. The two most important women in your life are your mother and your wife; he lost both and still managed to discover great things, and become one of the top minds in history, which highlights his devotion to his work. I am just glad that late on it is his name that is recognized over his fathers, because that is how it always should have been.