Why is Maxwell's theory so hard to understand? (2007) [pdf]
People didn&#x27;t really get Maxwell because Maxwell&#x27;s equations don&#x27;t need a medium aka &quot;aether&quot;.<p>Waves propagating without a medium is a shocking message in this time frame.<p>Maxwell published his equations in 1861&#x2F;1862 in first form.<p>In 1887, the Michelson–Morley experiment gave the first experimental disproof of the &quot;aether&quot;.<p>It also doesn&#x27;t help that you have things like &quot;displacement current&quot; and have to find strange integration surfaces to make Maxwell&#x27;s equations work out for things like capacitors or motors.  (The Heaviside-Hertz pedagogy that everybody is <i>STILL</i> taught is particularly problematic to use for motors.)