Shoulders
of Giants
The story of electromagnetic theory.
How did geometry become a way to understand invisible fields and eventually to send a voice across an ocean?
Shoulders of Giants follows the mathematics behind electromagnetic theory, from Greek geometry through calculus to the engineering of telegraphs, telephones, and radio.
Archimedes, Fermat, Maxwell, and Heaviside appear along the way. Their discoveries form a chain of ideas carried across centuries, with the rivalries, persistence, and human struggles that made them possible.