Clerk Maxwell's “Devil on Two Sticks”

Clerk . Investigator Jobs

James Clerk Maxwell 150 years on.

This paper is the preface to a special Issue of Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A reporting selected proceedings of the international conference marking the 150th anniversary of James Clerk Maxwell's professorial debut at Marischal College, Aberdeen. Following an introduction to Marischal College, a brief historical note summarizes Maxwell's life prior to his entering the college as professor of natural p...

James Clerk Maxwell's Scottish chair.

This account of Maxwell as professor of natural philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, fills in many details that have been left out of Maxwell's biographies. It discusses the degree programme that Maxwell taught on, the nature of his colleagues, the type of student he had in his classes and the range of activities involved in his teaching. Evidence is cited that Maxwell was an enthusiastic...

Preprint Version: May 30, 2009 THE PROBLEM OF TWO STICKS

Let l = [l0, l1] be the directed line segment from l0 ∈ IR to l1 ∈ IR. Suppose l̄ = [l̄0, l̄1] is a second segment of equal length such that l, l̄ satisfy the “two sticks condition”: ∥∥l1 − l̄0∥∥ ≥ ‖l1 − l0‖ ,∥∥l̄1 − l0∥∥ ≥ ∥∥l̄1 − l̄0∥∥ . Here ‖·‖ is a norm on IR. We explore the manner in which l1− l̄1 is then constrained when assumptions are made about “intermediate points” l∗ ∈ l, l̄∗ ∈ l̄. Roughly spe...

Sticks and Carrots: Two Incentive Mechanisms Supporting Intra-Group Cooperation

In this note, we introduce two distinct incentive mechanisms that support dynamic intra-group cooperation in the context of prisoner’s dilemma payoffs. The first mechanism involves a reward structure—a carrot—that supports both triadic and tripartite group relations. The second mechanism involves a punishment structure—a stick—that supports tripartite group relations. We also discuss how these ...