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Jim Al Khalili reads from a dramatic lost letter by James Clerk Maxwell

The workings of the young mathematician James Clerk Maxwell were telling him something quite extraordinary - but whilst it was just a series of equations it was all theory. He needed to find something in amongst his workings that could be measured in reality - to check whether his theory had any truth to it. And he did - as he wrote to the great Michael Faraday in a letter that has long been lost. Prof Jim Al-Khalili unearths a copy...
With thanks to Prof Frank James, who made the copy of the letter before it was lost.

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2 minutes