1865 · James Clerk Maxwell
A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field
What this work is
Maxwell's 1865 paper setting out his equations for electricity and magnetism. He treats the space around wires and magnets as an elastic medium in motion and writes equations for it. Combined, they give a wave whose speed, fixed by electrical measurements, matches the measured speed of light, and he concludes that light is a wave in that medium.
Then and now
Maxwell showed that equations for a medium filling space gave a wave at the speed of light. Physics dropped his medium but kept the equations, and built field theory on fields that fill empty space. His paper never showed such a field, and nobody has seen one.
Verdict
MIXED
The work only partly follows the scientific method, and the paradigm it assumes splits the tests. The verdict is mixed.
1·This work · inside the paradigm
MIXED
Partly follows the scientific method within Luminiferous Ether.
2·Paradigm · Luminiferous Ether
MIXED
Splits the tests. The worse layer decides.
How the verdict is decided
The verdict grades both layers: the paradigm this work assumes, and how the work was carried out inside it. Both must be scientific for the whole thing to be scientific. A clean method inside an unscientific paradigm is unscientific. An unscientific method inside a better paradigm is unscientific. A split on either layer is mixed. The worse layer decides.
1·This work
Did this work test its claim with methods that are independent, falsifiable, and non-circular?
MIXED
This work claims that electricity, magnetism, and light are transverse waves traveling through one invisible medium that fills all space, at a speed fixed by electrical measurements and equal to the measured speed of light. The tests split.
Independently Verifiable
Fail
The experiments recorded swinging needles and forces between wires, and the model turned a speed computed from them into a wave in a medium no instrument displays.
Falsifiable
Pass
The computed wave speed could have missed the measured speed of light, and a mismatch would have left the paper with no inference to draw.
Non-Circular
Fail
The theory assumes matter in motion in the surrounding space to build its equations, then offers those equations' transverse wave as proof that light undulates in that same medium.
Why
The experiments recorded needles and forces, and the wave in the medium exists only in the equations. The computed speed could have missed the speed of light and left the paper with nothing. But the medium was assumed in order to build the equations, and the equations' wave was then offered as proof of the medium.
2·Paradigm · Luminiferous Ether
Does the framework this work assumes pass the three tests?
MIXED
Independently Verifiable
Fail
Nobody has seen this medium; the framework's experiments end in needles, sparks, and measured speeds, and the medium is what the theory says those mean.
Falsifiable
Pass
The framework bet itself on measurable numbers, and when later experiments went against the medium, physics dropped the medium instead of renaming every failure forever.
Non-Circular
Fail
The medium was posited to carry light and electrical action, and the behavior of light and electricity was then read as proof the medium is there.
Why
The luminiferous ether framework says space is filled with an invisible medium whose motions carry light, electricity, and magnetism. What anyone can observe inside it is physical: needles swing, wires push each other, sparks jump, and light has a speed that wheels and mirrors can measure. The medium is the theory's addition. It made a real bet here. Maxwell's equations fixed the medium's wave speed by electrical measurements, and it matched the speed of light, a result that could have come out wrong. When later interferometer experiments found no trace of the medium's motion, physics patched the failure for a while with shrinking rulers, but in the end it let the medium die rather than keep renaming the misses. The flaw that stayed was older than that: the medium was assumed to carry light, and light's behavior was then cited as evidence the medium exists.
From the work
it may be called a Dynamical Theory, because it assumes that in that space there is matter in motion, by which the observed electromagnetic phenomena are produced.
There is always, however, enough of matter left to receive and transmit the undulations of light and heat
We now proceed to investigate whether these properties of that which constitutes the electromagnetic field, deduced from electromagnetic phenomena alone, are sufficient to explain the propagation of light through the same substance.