| Author: |
J. C. Maxwell
|
| Published in: | Clarendon Press |
| Release Year: | 1873 |
| Pages: | 489 |
| Edition: | Volume 1 |
| File Size: | 17 MB |
| File Type: | |
| Language: | English |
Description of A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
The fact that certain bodies, after being rubbed, appear to attract other bodies, was known to the ancients. In modern times, a great variety of other phenomena have been observed, and have been found to be related to these phenomena of attraction. They have been classed under the name of Electric phe nomens, amber, Saccrpev, having been the substance in which they were first described. Other bodies, particularly the loadstone, and pieces of iron and steel which have been subjected to certain processes, have also been long known to exhibit phenomena of action at a distance.
These phenomena, with others related to them, were found to differ, Mom, the electric phenomena, and have been classed under the name of Magnetic phenomena, the loadstone, age, being found in the Thessalian Magnesia. These two classes of phenomena have since been found to be related to each other, and the relations between the various phenomena of both classes, so far as they are known, constitute the science of Electromagnetism. In the following Treatise, I propose to describe the most important of those phenomena, to show how they may Is subjected to measurement, and to trace the mathematical connexions of the quantities measured.
Having thus obtained the data for a mathematical theory of electromagnetism, and has shown how this theory may ho applied to the calculation of phenomena. I shall endeavour to place In as dear a light as I cm the relations between the mathematical farm of this theory and that of the fundamental science of Dynamics, in Ord01 that we may be in some degree pranama to determine the kind of dynamical phenomena among which we are to look for illustrations or explanatiOns of the electromagnetic phenomena.
In de.cribing the phenomena, I shall select those which most clearly illustrate the third mental ideas of the theory, omitting others, or reserving them till the reader is more advanced. The most important aspect of any phenomenon limns a mathematical point of view Is that of a measurable quantity. I shall, therefore, consider clinical phenomena chiefly with a view to their measurement, describing the methods of measurement, and defining the standards on .1.111011 they depend. In the application of mathematics to the calculation of electrical quantities, I shall endeavour in the first place to deduce the most general conclusions from the data at our disposal, rind in the next place to apply the results to the simplest cases that can be dimwit I shall avoid, as much as I can, those questions which, though they have elicited the chill of mathematicians, have not enlarged our knowledge of science.
These phenomena, with others related to them, were found to differ, Mom, the electric phenomena, and have been classed under the name of Magnetic phenomena, the loadstone, age, being found in the Thessalian Magnesia. These two classes of phenomena have since been found to be related to each other, and the relations between the various phenomena of both classes, so far as they are known, constitute the science of Electromagnetism. In the following Treatise, I propose to describe the most important of those phenomena, to show how they may Is subjected to measurement, and to trace the mathematical connexions of the quantities measured.
Having thus obtained the data for a mathematical theory of electromagnetism, and has shown how this theory may ho applied to the calculation of phenomena. I shall endeavour to place In as dear a light as I cm the relations between the mathematical farm of this theory and that of the fundamental science of Dynamics, in Ord01 that we may be in some degree pranama to determine the kind of dynamical phenomena among which we are to look for illustrations or explanatiOns of the electromagnetic phenomena.
In de.cribing the phenomena, I shall select those which most clearly illustrate the third mental ideas of the theory, omitting others, or reserving them till the reader is more advanced. The most important aspect of any phenomenon limns a mathematical point of view Is that of a measurable quantity. I shall, therefore, consider clinical phenomena chiefly with a view to their measurement, describing the methods of measurement, and defining the standards on .1.111011 they depend. In the application of mathematics to the calculation of electrical quantities, I shall endeavour in the first place to deduce the most general conclusions from the data at our disposal, rind in the next place to apply the results to the simplest cases that can be dimwit I shall avoid, as much as I can, those questions which, though they have elicited the chill of mathematicians, have not enlarged our knowledge of science.
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