WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.919 You know that feeling when you open up a highly 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:04.980 technical scientific paper and you are immediately 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:08.539 confronted with this massive wall of complex 00:00:08.539 --> 00:00:12.900 mathematical equations? Oh, yeah. It's an incredibly 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:15.380 intimidating barrier. Right. It's like staring 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:18.359 at an alien language. You see the dense trigonometry, 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:21.980 the advanced calculus, and there's this immediate 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:24.980 sinking feeling of, well, I guess I'm just not 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:26.920 mathematically fluent enough to understand how 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.260 the universe actually works. Exactly. We have 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:34.130 this culturally ingrained idea that true profound 00:00:34.130 --> 00:00:37.310 insight into the laws of nature strictly requires 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:39.750 you to speak the language of advanced mathematics. 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:42.590 Like it's the only valid password. Yeah, we view 00:00:42.590 --> 00:00:45.250 math as the only way to get past the gatekeepers 00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:47.609 of modern science. But what if the person who 00:00:47.609 --> 00:00:49.670 essentially invented the modern electric age? 00:00:50.380 --> 00:00:52.299 the person responsible for the fact that you 00:00:52.299 --> 00:00:54.659 can plug a computer into a wall or drive an electric 00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:57.640 car or even listen to this audio right now. What 00:00:57.640 --> 00:00:59.859 if he barely knew any math at all? It's kind 00:00:59.859 --> 00:01:02.219 of wild to think about. His mathematical abilities 00:01:02.219 --> 00:01:05.599 literally stopped at basic algebra. Which completely 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:08.060 shatters that whole gatekeeping myth right there. 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:10.760 It really does. So today's deep dive into the 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:13.640 source material is a comprehensive look at the 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:16.900 life and science of Michael Faraday. We are pulling 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:20.060 from a massive stack of historical biographies, 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:23.519 his personal letters, and 19th century records 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.480 from the Royal Institution. There's a lot of 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:27.939 great material there. There is. And our mission 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:31.420 today is to uncover how a poor, self -educated 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:34.260 bookbinder's apprentice managed to visualize 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:37.040 his way into discovering electromagnetic induction, 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.579 inventing the electric motor, and basically fundamentally 00:01:40.579 --> 00:01:43.659 rewiring human civilization. No small feat. Not 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:45.700 at all. And more importantly, we want to look 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:49.299 at why his deeply visual, tactile way of engaging 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:51.640 with the world holds the ultimate lesson for 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.680 you, especially if you ever feel overwhelmed 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.909 by complex information today. What's really fascinating 00:01:56.909 --> 00:01:58.750 here is that we aren't just looking at a list 00:01:58.750 --> 00:02:01.049 of inventions. I mean, we are looking at a fundamentally 00:02:01.049 --> 00:02:03.629 different way of thinking. Right. His profound 00:02:03.629 --> 00:02:06.989 lack of a traditional elite education actually 00:02:06.989 --> 00:02:10.030 became his greatest superpower. He simply wasn't 00:02:10.030 --> 00:02:13.210 constrained by the rigid, purely abstract ways 00:02:13.210 --> 00:02:15.449 the scientific establishment of the 19th century 00:02:15.449 --> 00:02:18.909 was was taught to approach physics. OK, let's 00:02:18.909 --> 00:02:21.030 unpack this because Faraday's origin story is 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:24.330 basically the ultimate 19th century DIY education. 00:02:24.389 --> 00:02:28.129 It really is. We start in London, 1791. Ferdy 00:02:28.129 --> 00:02:31.090 is born into a very poor family. His father is 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:33.669 a village blacksmith, and they belong to this 00:02:33.669 --> 00:02:35.689 strict, dissenting Christian sect called the 00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:38.599 Glicites, or Sandamanians. Right. Faraday gets 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:41.439 the absolute bare bones basic schooling, just 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:43.939 reading, writing, a tiny bit of math. And by 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:46.360 age 14, he is forced to enter the workforce as 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:49.139 an apprentice to a local book binder named George 00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:51.879 Rebell. And that specific manual labor is the 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:53.900 catalyst for everything that follows. Because 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:56.120 as a book binder, Faraday isn't just physically 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.060 stitching the leather and a paper together. He's 00:02:58.060 --> 00:03:01.099 actually reading them. Exactly. He is devouring 00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:04.560 the contents of those pages. Knowledge wasn't 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:08.379 this abstract lecture handed down by an aristocratic 00:03:08.379 --> 00:03:11.460 professor. For him, knowledge was a physical 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:13.919 object he was literally building with his own 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:16.199 hands. He takes two books in particular to heart. 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:19.479 One is Isaac Watts's The Improvement of the Mind, 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:22.659 which he basically treats as a rigorous operational 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:24.860 manual for his own brain. A great way to put 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:27.159 it. And the other is Conversations on Chemistry. 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:30.310 by Jean Marseille. And he doesn't just read Marseille's 00:03:30.310 --> 00:03:33.110 book. He starts physically recreating her chemistry 00:03:33.110 --> 00:03:35.169 experiments right there in the back room of the 00:03:35.169 --> 00:03:37.979 bookshop. Because to Faraday, if you couldn't 00:03:37.979 --> 00:03:40.099 demonstrate something physically, if you couldn't 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:41.719 manipulate it with your own hands, you didn't 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:44.539 actually understand it. Yeah. That tactile requirement 00:03:44.539 --> 00:03:46.860 becomes the bedrock of his entire scientific 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:49.620 method. And it sets the stage perfectly for his 00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:52.439 entry into the formal scientific world in 1812. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:54.639 Right. So he's 20 years old, his apprenticeship 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:57.259 is ending, and a customer gives him tickets to 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.860 attend a series of lectures by the eminent chemist 00:03:59.860 --> 00:04:02.560 Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Davey 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.360 is the absolute rock star scientist of London 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.419 at this time. He really is. So Faraday sits in 00:04:08.419 --> 00:04:11.240 the audience and takes incredibly meticulous 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:14.719 notes on Davey's chemical demonstrations. He 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.560 then takes those notes. uses his professional 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.920 skills to bind them into a gorgeous 300 -page 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:23.819 leather book and ships it directly to Humphrey 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:26.620 Davy. I love that. It's this brilliant, tangible 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:29.180 portfolio. And it proves to Davy that this young 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.839 man has an unparalleled capacity for practical 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:35.040 observation, which pays off shortly after, when 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.680 Davy manages to temporarily blind himself in 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.139 a laboratory explosion. Oh, wow. Yeah, he was 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:42.319 working with a highly volatile chemical called 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.329 nitrogen trichloride. Naturally. Right. he desperately 00:04:46.329 --> 00:04:48.889 needs a capable assistant, he remembers the young 00:04:48.889 --> 00:04:51.850 bookbinder and hires Faraday in 1813. Where they 00:04:51.850 --> 00:04:54.250 promptly get injured in another nitrogen trichloride 00:04:54.250 --> 00:04:57.129 explosion together. Exactly, 19th century chemistry 00:04:57.129 --> 00:04:59.949 was, it was not for the faint of heart. Definitely 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:02.110 not. You know, looking at this entry into the 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:04.290 scientific elite, Parmy thinks his lack of formal 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:06.470 credentials actually gave him an advantage. How 00:05:06.470 --> 00:05:09.269 so? Well today, an algorithmic resume scanner 00:05:09.269 --> 00:05:11.910 would reject Michael Faraday in a microsecond 00:05:11.910 --> 00:05:14.509 because he didn't have a bachelor's degree. But 00:05:14.509 --> 00:05:17.250 back then, the lack of bureaucratic HR departments 00:05:17.250 --> 00:05:21.110 meant Davey could just hire raw Unpolished talent. 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:23.110 Yeah, if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:26.490 the lack of formal gates was crucial. But it 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:29.029 only worked because science was still transitioning 00:05:29.029 --> 00:05:32.129 from a wealthy gentleman's hobby into a, you 00:05:32.129 --> 00:05:34.589 know, a professional discipline. Right. Davey 00:05:34.589 --> 00:05:36.670 didn't need a theoretician. He needed someone 00:05:36.670 --> 00:05:38.649 who could keep the glassware from exploding. 00:05:39.410 --> 00:05:42.170 Faraday's mind was shaped by surviving and manipulating 00:05:42.170 --> 00:05:44.930 those practical engagements. That practical engagement 00:05:44.930 --> 00:05:47.420 leads directly to the spark of invention. And 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:50.459 also to a massive professional crisis. Fast forward 00:05:50.459 --> 00:05:53.699 to 1821. A huge year. Hans Christian Ersted has 00:05:53.699 --> 00:05:56.180 just published his groundbreaking discovery that 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:59.120 an electric current moving through a wire causes 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:01.819 a nearby compass needle to deflect. The electromagnetic 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:04.439 link is proven, and every top physicist in Europe 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:06.560 is scrambling to figure out how to harness it. 00:06:06.819 --> 00:06:10.000 At the Royal Institution. Humphrey Davy and William 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.959 Hyde Wollaston are desperately trying to build 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.000 a machine that uses this new electromagnetic 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.459 force to create continuous motion. And they fail 00:06:20.459 --> 00:06:23.180 entirely. Completely. They are trapped in older 00:06:23.180 --> 00:06:25.639 paradigms of physics and just can't conceptualize 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:28.220 how to make the forces interact continuously. 00:06:28.579 --> 00:06:31.060 But Faraday, who is now a rising star in the 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:33.939 lab, takes a crack at it and he actually figures 00:06:33.939 --> 00:06:37.199 it out. He invents the homopolar motor. The physical 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:39.819 setup of which is brilliantly strange. It really 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.579 is. He creates a pool of liquid mercury, which 00:06:42.579 --> 00:06:45.139 acts as an electrical conductor. He places a 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:47.019 permanent magnet standing upright in the center 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:49.839 of the mercury. Then he hangs a wire from above, 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:51.980 so it just dangles into the liquid pool. And 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:53.720 here is where we need to look at the actual physics, 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:55.839 rather than just treating it like a magic trick. 00:06:56.139 --> 00:06:58.240 Yeah, please. When Faraday connects a battery, 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.800 the current flows down the dangling wire into 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.660 the mercury and back to the battery. But as those 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:06.019 electrons travel down the wire, they are passing 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:08.259 through the magnetic field generated by that 00:07:08.259 --> 00:07:10.600 upright permanent magnet. And those two forces 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.019 physically interact. Precisely. It's what physicists 00:07:14.019 --> 00:07:17.660 now call the Lorentz force. When an electric 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:20.459 current moves perpendicular to a magnetic field, 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.100 it doesn't just pass through passively. It gets 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:25.759 pushed. Right? It experiences a physical force 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:28.579 that pushes it sideways, perpendicular to both 00:07:28.579 --> 00:07:30.579 the magnetic field and the current itself, so 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:33.579 the wire gets shoved sideways. But because the 00:07:33.579 --> 00:07:36.620 magnetic field is radiating outward in all directions 00:07:36.620 --> 00:07:39.879 from that central circular magnet, that sideways 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:43.300 push becomes a continuous circular motion. The 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:45.540 wire just keeps sweeping around the magnet as 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:47.740 long as the current flows. It's like a carnival 00:07:47.740 --> 00:07:50.220 ride for electrons. Exactly. It is the first 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.620 time in human history that electrical energy 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:55.600 is converted into continuous mechanical motion. 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:58.680 It's the conceptual ancestor of every electric 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:01.839 motor on earth. A massive breakthrough. Massive. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.000 And Faraday is so incredibly thrilled by this 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.160 breakthrough that he immediately publishes his 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.120 results. But he completely forgets to credit 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:12.300 Humphrey Davy or William Wollstone for their 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:14.160 preliminary discussions and work in the lab. 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:17.199 And the blowback is immediate and severe. Davy 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.860 feels deeply slighted. Understandably. The resulting 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:22.339 controversy poisons his relationship with his 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:25.519 mentor. The institutional jealousy of the era 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:28.100 kicks in, and the consequence is that Faraday 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:31.980 is effectively sidelined. He is quietly steered 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:34.720 away from researching electromagnetism for the 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:37.220 next decade. OK, looking at his actions here, 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:39.940 I have to say it's hard not to see Faraday as 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:42.320 a bit of a glory hound. I mean, he publishes 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.539 the biggest physics breakthrough of the century 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:47.539 and conveniently forgets to mention the senior 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:50.259 scientists who gave him the lab space and the 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:53.019 initial theories. Yeah. Wait, was Faraday acting 00:08:53.019 --> 00:08:55.480 like an arrogant tech bro stealing the spotlight 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:59.649 or was this just a classic naive mistake? by 00:08:59.649 --> 00:09:02.929 an overeager junior employee. It's easy to see 00:09:02.929 --> 00:09:04.850 it that way from a modern perspective, but the 00:09:04.850 --> 00:09:07.009 historical context suggests it was genuinely 00:09:07.009 --> 00:09:09.169 a naive mistake. Remember his background. Right, 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.350 the bookbinder. Exactly. He didn't come through 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:14.350 Oxford or Cambridge. He didn't learn the delicate, 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:16.669 highly political etiquette of the scientific 00:09:16.669 --> 00:09:19.909 aristocracy. He sought a profound physical truth 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:22.610 in the laboratory. And his unrefined instinct 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:24.570 was simply to share it with the world. You just 00:09:24.570 --> 00:09:27.419 wanted to get it out there. Right. But this exile 00:09:27.419 --> 00:09:29.840 from electricity, while personally devastating, 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.240 it actually forces a pivot that becomes his greatest 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.080 advantage. Because he spends the 1820s diving 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.860 intensely into chemistry. And he isn't just messing 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:42.100 around. He utterly dominates the field. He really 00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:44.019 does. But he's not just making a list of discoveries. 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.779 He's fundamentally training his brain. Take his 00:09:46.779 --> 00:09:49.879 work on liquefying gases. He takes chlorine gas, 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:53.080 traps it in a sealed, bent glass tube, and applies 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:55.759 heat to one end while cooling the other. He watches 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:59.139 the pressure build until this invisible gas physically 00:09:59.139 --> 00:10:02.220 condenses into a yellow liquid. And that specific 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:04.919 physical manipulation is crucial. By forcing 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:07.159 gases into liquids, he is training himself to 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:09.720 understand that invisible phenomena have profound 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.360 physical reality. That is so key. It really is. 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.759 He is building the exact mental framework he 00:10:14.759 --> 00:10:17.360 will need to visualize invisible magnetic fields 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:20.049 later on. During this time, he also works with 00:10:20.049 --> 00:10:22.450 the polymath William Wewell to create the very 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:24.649 language of electrochemistry. They literally 00:10:24.649 --> 00:10:28.289 invent words we use daily. Anode, cathode, electrode, 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:32.210 ion. Yep. So by 1831, Humphry Davy has passed 00:10:32.210 --> 00:10:35.289 away, the political heat has cooled, and Faraday 00:10:35.289 --> 00:10:38.049 is finally free to return to electromagnetism. 00:10:38.389 --> 00:10:40.830 And he returns with a mind uniquely trained to 00:10:40.830 --> 00:10:43.289 see the physical structure of invisible things. 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:47.860 which leads to his absolute magnum opus. Electromagnetic 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:50.940 induction. Yes. Aristot had proved that electricity 00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:53.580 could create magnetism. Faraday wanted to know 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:57.039 if the reverse was true. Can magnetism create 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:59.360 electricity? Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:03.059 He builds a deceptively simple apparatus. He 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:05.980 takes a solid iron ring and wraps two separate 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.720 insulated coils of wire around opposite sides 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.940 of it. Okay. Coil A is attached to a battery. 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:13.600 Coil B is attached to a meter to measure current. 00:11:13.690 --> 00:11:16.309 The coils are not touching. The only connection 00:11:16.309 --> 00:11:18.669 is the iron ring. It's basically the grandfather 00:11:18.669 --> 00:11:21.350 of the modern wireless phone charger. Exactly. 00:11:21.669 --> 00:11:23.649 Now, conditional logic at the time dictated that 00:11:23.649 --> 00:11:26.250 if you turn the battery on for coil A, a magnetic 00:11:26.250 --> 00:11:28.909 field would be created, and that constant magnetic 00:11:28.909 --> 00:11:30.929 field should just push electricity through coil 00:11:30.929 --> 00:11:33.750 B. But it doesn't. No. When the current is steady, 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:37.250 coil B registers absolutely nothing. But Faraday 00:11:37.250 --> 00:11:39.929 catches the one detail everyone else missed. 00:11:40.690 --> 00:11:43.629 He notices the moment of transition. The split 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:46.230 second. Yes. When he first hooks up the battery, 00:11:46.610 --> 00:11:49.409 the needle on coil B jumps for just a split second, 00:11:49.789 --> 00:11:52.710 then drops to zero. When he disconnects the battery, 00:11:53.289 --> 00:11:55.169 the needle jumps again in the opposite direction. 00:11:55.570 --> 00:11:58.169 Because it isn't the mere presence of a magnetic 00:11:58.169 --> 00:12:00.730 field that creates electricity, it is the change 00:12:00.730 --> 00:12:03.090 in the magnetic field. Right. When the battery 00:12:03.090 --> 00:12:06.029 is turned on, the magnetic field expands outward. 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:09.769 As those invisible lines of magnetic force expand, 00:12:10.169 --> 00:12:12.950 they physically sweep across the wire of coil 00:12:12.950 --> 00:12:16.450 B. That moving magnetic tension physically shoves 00:12:16.450 --> 00:12:19.009 the electrons in the wire, creating a current. 00:12:19.149 --> 00:12:20.830 And then when it turns off... When the battery 00:12:20.830 --> 00:12:23.169 is turned off, the magnetic field collapses, 00:12:23.370 --> 00:12:25.710 sweeping back across the wire in the other direction, 00:12:25.830 --> 00:12:28.169 pushing the electrons the opposite way. So a 00:12:28.169 --> 00:12:31.230 moving magnet induces an electric current. From 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:33.629 this single realization, he builds the Faraday 00:12:33.629 --> 00:12:36.070 disk, which is the world's first electric generator. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:38.940 But what fascinates me is how he processed this 00:12:38.940 --> 00:12:42.240 without math. Most scientists were trying to 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.980 explain these forces using complex Newtonian 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:47.860 equations, treating electricity like fluids acting 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:50.559 at a distance. Yeah, and Faraday literally couldn't 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:53.179 do the calculus. So he had to visualize it geometrically. 00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:56.019 If you've ever sprinkled iron filings around 00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:58.740 a bar magnet and watched them snap into those 00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:01.840 sweeping curved geometric patterns, you are seeing 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:04.620 what Faraday saw in his mind's eye. He envisioned 00:13:04.620 --> 00:13:07.639 the empty space around magnets and wires as being 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.220 filled with invisible physical lines of tension. 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:12.940 He called them lines of force. Like a comic book 00:13:12.940 --> 00:13:15.539 artist mapping a universe. He thought of them 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:17.700 like rubber bands stretching and contracting 00:13:17.700 --> 00:13:20.850 through space. When a wire physically cuts across 00:13:20.850 --> 00:13:23.250 these rubber bands, it creates an electrical 00:13:23.250 --> 00:13:25.590 current. It's a brilliantly tangible metaphor. 00:13:26.210 --> 00:13:28.990 And decades later, the brilliant physicist James 00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:32.009 Clerk Maxwell takes Faraday's visual concept 00:13:32.009 --> 00:13:34.809 of these lines of force and translates them into 00:13:34.809 --> 00:13:36.889 the complex mathematical equations that form 00:13:36.889 --> 00:13:39.529 the bedrock of all modern electromagnetic theory. 00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:43.129 Maxwell actually did the math. He did. And Maxwell 00:13:43.129 --> 00:13:45.850 explicitly stated that Faraday's visual method 00:13:45.850 --> 00:13:48.500 proved he was a mathematician of a very order. 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:51.360 He just used spatial geometry in his mind instead 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.059 of symbols on a chalkboard. That spatial geometry 00:13:54.059 --> 00:13:56.659 leads Faraday to an even deeper obsession, which 00:13:56.659 --> 00:13:59.830 is unifying the forces of nature. Because in 00:13:59.830 --> 00:14:01.730 1832, people still thought there were different 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:04.110 flavors of electricity. Right. You had static 00:14:04.110 --> 00:14:07.269 electricity from rubbing glass, animal electricity 00:14:07.269 --> 00:14:10.590 from torpedo fish, and voltaic electricity from 00:14:10.590 --> 00:14:14.090 batteries. But Faraday runs exhausting experiments 00:14:14.090 --> 00:14:16.789 to prove they are all exactly the same fundamental 00:14:16.789 --> 00:14:20.230 force, just varying in quantity and intensity. 00:14:20.350 --> 00:14:22.429 He is relentlessly collapsing the boundaries 00:14:22.429 --> 00:14:24.769 between disciplines. And to prove his theories, 00:14:24.830 --> 00:14:27.529 he executes some of the most spectacular theatrical 00:14:27.529 --> 00:14:30.210 experiments in scientific history. We absolutely 00:14:30.210 --> 00:14:32.470 have to talk about the cage experiment of 1836. 00:14:32.629 --> 00:14:34.789 Oh this is a classic. He wants to prove a point 00:14:34.789 --> 00:14:37.289 about how static electricity behaves on conductors. 00:14:37.690 --> 00:14:40.970 So he built a massive 12 foot square wooden room 00:14:40.970 --> 00:14:43.330 inside the Royal Institution. Right there inside. 00:14:43.690 --> 00:14:46.769 Right. He wraps the entire structure in wire 00:14:46.769 --> 00:14:50.490 mesh and paper. Then he electrifies the outside 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:53.590 of it with massive static charges. Sparks are 00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:56.809 literally flying off this giant cube. And then 00:14:56.809 --> 00:14:59.190 he just casually steps inside it. The birth of 00:14:59.190 --> 00:15:02.610 the Faraday cage. Stepping into a 12 -foot electrified 00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:06.210 cage requires an unbreakable, almost terrifying 00:15:06.210 --> 00:15:08.669 level of faith in your own hypothesis. Yeah. 00:15:08.929 --> 00:15:11.470 I mean, what kind of psychological courage does 00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:14.970 that take? It requires the faith of someone who 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:17.470 intuitively understands the physical mechanics. 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:20.279 of the invisible. Yeah. He knew that the electrical 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:22.580 charge would reside entirely on the exterior 00:15:22.580 --> 00:15:25.200 conducting surface. Why? Because the electrons 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.299 on the wire mesh repel each other. They push 00:15:27.299 --> 00:15:29.340 as far away from each other as physically possible, 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:31.720 which is the extreme outer surface of the cage. 00:15:32.259 --> 00:15:34.419 As they distribute around that exterior, they 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:37.320 create an internal electric field that perfectly 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:39.440 cancels out the external one. So the inside is 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:41.580 completely shielded. Exactly. It's the exact 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:43.720 same physics that keeps you safe inside a metal 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:45.620 airplane when it gets struck by lightning. He 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:48.240 is proving that electricity is a physical force 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.639 interacting with matter, not some magical fluid. 00:15:51.259 --> 00:15:53.700 And he just keeps pushing this unified theory. 00:15:53.870 --> 00:15:57.450 In 1845, using a piece of heavy glass he had 00:15:57.450 --> 00:15:59.529 manufactured years earlier during his chemistry 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:02.830 exile, he discovers diamagnetism. Which is another 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:05.190 phenomenon that requires us to look at the mechanism. 00:16:05.610 --> 00:16:07.809 When Faraday applied a strong magnetic field 00:16:07.809 --> 00:16:11.450 to this glass, it didn't attract. It weakly repelled 00:16:11.450 --> 00:16:13.889 away from the magnet. When he discovered, though 00:16:13.889 --> 00:16:16.370 he didn't have the modern atomic models to fully 00:16:16.370 --> 00:16:19.029 articulate it, was that the applied magnetic 00:16:19.029 --> 00:16:21.350 field was slightly altering the orbital motion 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:25.009 of the electrons inside the glass's atoms. That 00:16:25.009 --> 00:16:27.990 microscopic shift in momentum generated a tiny 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:30.610 opposing magnetic field causing the physical 00:16:30.610 --> 00:16:33.230 repulsion. He then passes a beam of polarized 00:16:33.230 --> 00:16:36.009 light through that exact same glass, turns on 00:16:36.009 --> 00:16:38.129 the electromagnet, and watches the orientation 00:16:38.129 --> 00:16:40.850 of the light literally twist. It's amazing! He 00:16:40.850 --> 00:16:43.169 writes in his notebook, I have at last succeeded 00:16:43.169 --> 00:16:47.090 in magnetizing a ray of light. He proves electromagnetism 00:16:47.090 --> 00:16:49.899 and light are fundamentally connected. This raises 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:52.500 an important question, though, about how scientific 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:54.899 visionaries are treated in their own time. What 00:16:54.899 --> 00:16:57.159 do you mean? Well, when Faraday proposed that 00:16:57.159 --> 00:16:59.799 these electromagnetic forces extended out into 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:02.580 empty space, what we now call field theory, he 00:17:02.580 --> 00:17:05.539 was openly mocked by many of his highly educated 00:17:05.539 --> 00:17:09.059 peers. Really? They mocked him? Oh, yeah. They 00:17:09.059 --> 00:17:11.420 thought the idea of invisible forces acting through 00:17:11.420 --> 00:17:14.259 the vacuum of space was absurd. It actually took 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:17.380 50 years, long after his death, for his field 00:17:17.380 --> 00:17:19.799 theories to be fully weaponized by technology 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:23.180 when the Savoy Theatre in London was lit entirely 00:17:23.180 --> 00:17:26.079 by incandescent bulbs powered by his generator 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:28.880 concepts. That is wild. Which brings us to the 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.099 ethics of the man himself. Because we have to 00:17:31.099 --> 00:17:33.440 look at how Faraday handled the immense world 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:36.180 -altering power of these discoveries. He practically 00:17:36.180 --> 00:17:38.619 handed human civilization the keys to unlimited 00:17:38.619 --> 00:17:40.599 energy. He could have been the wealthiest man 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:42.980 of the 19th century. Easily. But he was driven 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.980 by his devout Sandamanian Christian faith, which 00:17:45.980 --> 00:17:48.359 instilled a profound sense of humility and a 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.200 deep suspicion of worldly accumulation. He lived 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:54.259 a life of astonishing modesty. Yeah, he turned 00:17:54.259 --> 00:17:56.779 down a knighthood, stating he preferred to remain 00:17:56.779 --> 00:18:00.019 plain Mr. Faraday to the end. He twice refused 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:01.940 to become the president of the Royal Society, 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:04.839 and he declined an offer to be buried in Westminster 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:07.519 Abbey. He really walked the walk. He also directed 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:10.619 his scientific rigor toward profound public service. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:13.720 He worked extensively on optimizing the lenses 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:17.180 and lighthouses to save sailors' lives. And in 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:21.400 1846, he investigated the horrific Haswell colliery 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.480 explosion. That was a tragic event. It was. Through 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:26.839 meticulous forensic chemistry, he proved for 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.779 the very first time that airborne coal dust was 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:32.819 a highly combustible fatal factor in mine explosions, 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:36.140 not just the methane gas. He detailed exactly 00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:38.839 how proper ventilation could prevent future tragedies. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:41.420 Tragically, the mining industry largely ignored 00:18:41.420 --> 00:18:44.059 his coal dust warnings for another 60 years. 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:46.200 Yeah. His ethical boundaries were completely 00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:48.500 unyielding, too. During the Crimean War, the 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:50.440 British government approached Faraday to advise 00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:52.240 on the development of chemical weapons for the 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:55.200 battlefield. Given his unmatched expertise in 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:57.960 isolating and liquefying toxic gases like chlorine, 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:01.119 he was the obvious choice. But he flatly refused 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:04.140 to participate, citing his strict moral reservations. 00:19:05.059 --> 00:19:07.559 He simply would not allow his understanding of 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:10.740 nature to be used to kill. A powerful stance. 00:19:11.150 --> 00:19:13.930 Looking at his refusal to monetize his genius, 00:19:14.650 --> 00:19:17.049 he wrote in a letter, I have always loved science 00:19:17.049 --> 00:19:19.650 more than money, and because my occupation is 00:19:19.650 --> 00:19:22.190 almost entirely personal, I cannot afford to 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:25.009 get rich. Part of me thinks it's a beautiful, 00:19:25.309 --> 00:19:28.210 pure sentiment. But honestly, another part of 00:19:28.210 --> 00:19:30.230 me thinks it was a massive missed opportunity. 00:19:30.539 --> 00:19:33.359 In our modern world of venture capital and patent 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:36.680 wars, is Faraday's refusal to monetize his genius 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:40.380 deeply inspiring or a little naive. If he had 00:19:40.380 --> 00:19:42.160 patented the electric motor or the generator, 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:44.000 he could have funded his own state -of -the -art 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:46.519 laboratory indefinitely, rather than constantly 00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:49.000 relying on grants and the royal institution's 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.009 budget. It's a pragmatic argument for sure, but 00:19:51.009 --> 00:19:53.289 it fundamentally conflicts with his core worldview. 00:19:53.789 --> 00:19:55.930 To Faraday, knowledge was unequivocally a public 00:19:55.930 --> 00:19:58.609 good. Uncovering the laws of physics was an exploration 00:19:58.609 --> 00:20:01.349 of creation, not a commodity to be hoarded or 00:20:01.349 --> 00:20:03.450 locked behind patents. That makes sense. That 00:20:03.450 --> 00:20:05.950 ethos of public accessibility is exactly why 00:20:05.950 --> 00:20:08.309 he poured massive amounts of energy into public 00:20:08.309 --> 00:20:11.640 education. He founded the Friday evening discourses 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.980 and the famous Christmas lectures for young people 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:16.420 at the Royal Institution. Which are still going 00:20:16.420 --> 00:20:19.220 on today. Yeah. And he demanded that science 00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:22.400 be presented with live, tangible experiments, 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:25.980 not dry academic readings. He wanted to spark 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:29.319 wonder, literally urging his audiences, think 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:32.099 of that, and philosophize. So what does this 00:20:32.099 --> 00:20:35.349 all mean for you listening right now? Faraday's 00:20:35.349 --> 00:20:37.890 life is a master class in the sheer power of 00:20:37.890 --> 00:20:40.549 curiosity over credentialism. Absolutely. If 00:20:40.549 --> 00:20:42.750 you are ever feeling intimidated by the dense 00:20:42.750 --> 00:20:46.349 jargon or the complex mathematics or the institutional 00:20:46.349 --> 00:20:49.210 gatekeeping in your own learning journey, remember 00:20:49.210 --> 00:20:51.529 the poor bookbinder's apprentice. He didn't let 00:20:51.529 --> 00:20:53.190 the fact that he couldn't read the math stop 00:20:53.190 --> 00:20:56.190 him from reading the physical universe. He visualized 00:20:56.190 --> 00:20:58.250 his way into inventing the modern world. And 00:20:58.250 --> 00:21:00.329 the power of that visualization leaves us with 00:21:00.329 --> 00:21:03.700 one final deeply profound story from the sources 00:21:03.700 --> 00:21:06.079 to consider. Toward the very end of his life 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:09.460 in 1862, Faraday's intuition was still driving 00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:12.400 him. He set up an experiment using a spectroscope 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:14.720 to see if a strong magnetic field could alter 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.480 the spectral lines of emitted light. He ran the 00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:19.680 experiment, but he saw absolutely no change. 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:23.000 His glass lenses and prisms simply weren't sensitive 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.779 enough to detect the minute shift. He failed. 00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:29.890 But his intuition wasn't wrong. Not at all. 35 00:21:29.890 --> 00:21:33.089 years later, in 1897, a Dutch physicist named 00:21:33.089 --> 00:21:36.829 Peter Zeeman used vastly superior modern optical 00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:39.069 tools to run the exact same experiment Faraday 00:21:39.069 --> 00:21:42.230 had attempted. The exact same one. Zeeman proved 00:21:42.230 --> 00:21:44.630 that Faraday's intuition was flawlessly accurate. 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:47.529 The magnetic field did alter the light spectrum. 00:21:48.170 --> 00:21:50.869 Zeeman won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for 00:21:50.869 --> 00:21:53.470 this discovery, and in his acceptance speech, 00:21:53.789 --> 00:21:56.509 he specifically credited Michael Faraday's final 00:21:56.509 --> 00:21:58.799 failed experiment. He knew the physical The truth 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:00.819 was there. Human engineering just hadn't built 00:22:00.819 --> 00:22:02.599 the lenses to let him see it yet. Exactly. Which 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:04.720 really leaves you with a profound question to 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.660 chew on. What fundamental truths are we already 00:22:07.660 --> 00:22:10.460 guessing correctly today, simply waiting for 00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:12.680 the technology of tomorrow to prove us right? 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:15.299 When you look out at the complexity of the world, 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:17.759 are you letting the equations intimidate you, 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:19.859 or are you trying to see the invisible lines 00:22:19.859 --> 00:22:21.400 of force connecting it all together?