Plausibility Check: Maxwell's Theory Of Relativity in 1861

Simply put, can James Clark Maxwell make the necessary extensions of his 8 equations to discover relativity before he dies in 1879?
 

Japhy

Banned
Don't think we can prove it back then, can we? I think we need some more tech.

Its not an insurmountable tech disadvantage. All that was needed to prove Relativity were Star Charts, Telescopes, Cameras, and a Total Eclipse of the Sun. Mind you it was difficult enough that it took years to Prove Einstein right in the 1910's and 20's but its not impossible with the right cameras.
 
As the article says - he might have done it but what would it have actually meant for the development of science? The conceptual leap would be so far ahead of the practical application that it would have been an intellectual curiosity until astrophysics and quantum mechanics (splitting the atom) gave it a raison d'etre.
 
Special relativity really needs the michelson morley experiment of 1887.

General relativity requires a further development of differential geometry, the base version having been published in 1900 by ricci and leviCivita.
 
Special relativity really needs the michelson morley experiment of 1887.

General relativity requires a further development of differential geometry, the base version having been published in 1900 by ricci and leviCivita.

We could possibly get the Michelson-Morley experiment to occur earlier if we just make Maxwell realize how increasingly complex and unlikely his own gears-and-wheels-model of the aether is, and inspired by his friend Michael Faraday, call for experimental investigation into the subject. If so, then we could actually have Maxwell develop the Lorentz transformations and other equations of Special Relativity prior to his death (whether or not he'll, like Einstein, throw the concept of the aether out of the window I leave up to Rridgway).

If we want him to develop General Relativity, then as you said, getting Tensor Analysis to reach 1900s levels 40-20 years in advance, we're looking at quite some intricate butterflies we need to figure out when and where to place...
 
Riemannian Geometry had only just been invented, and I don't think the full impact had been absorbed yet. So I don't think it was possible in 1861. 1881, maybe.
 
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