A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism / Edition 3

by James Clerk Maxwell

Overview

Described by Einstein as "the most important event in physics since Newton's time," the discovery by James Clerk Maxwell that a vast array of phenomena could be united by four elegant formulas remains one of the greatest successes of modern physics. This book, based on the third edition originally published in 1891, presents the original work which underpins the electronic revolution in the 20th century and which inspired both Lorentz's theories on the electron and Einstein's theory of relativity. Volume I covers electrostatics and electrokinematics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198503736
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/10/1998
Series:	Oxford Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences , #1
Edition description:	3RD
Pages:	554
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

James Clerk Maxwell: In His Own Words — And Others
Dover reprinted Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1954, surely one of the first classics of scientific literature over a thousand pages in length to be given new life and accessibility to students and researchers as a result of the paperback revolution of the 1950s. Matter and Motion followed in 1991 and Theory of Heat in 2001.

Some towering figures in science have to speak for themselves. Such is James Clerk Maxwell (1813–1879), the Scottish physicist and mathematician who formulated the basic equations of classical electromagnetic theory.

In the Author's Own Words:
"We may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in traveling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion."

"The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again." — James Clerk Maxwell

Critical Acclaim for James Clerk Maxwell:
"From a long view of the history of mankind — seen from, say, ten thousand years from now — there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade." — Richard P. Feynman

"Maxwell's equations have had a greater impact on human history than any ten presidents." — Carl Sagan

Table of Contents

Preliminary. On the measurement of quantities
Part 1: Electrostatics
1. Description of phenomena
2. Elementary mathematical theory of electricity
3. On electrical work and energy in a system of conductors
4. General theorems
5. Mechanical action between two electrical systems
6. Points and lines of equilibrium
7. Forms of equipotential surfaces and lines of flow
8. Simple cases of electrification
9. Spherical harmonics
10. Confocal surfaces of the second degree
11. Theory of electric images
12. Conjugate functions in two dimensions
13. Electrostatic instruments
Part 2: Electrokinematics
1. The electric current
2. Conduction and resistance
3. Electromotive force between bodies in contact
4. Electrolysis
5. Electrolyte polarization
6. Mathematical theory of the distribution of electric currents
7. Conduction in three dimensions
8. Resistance and conductivity in three dimensions
9. Conduction through heterogeneous media
10. Conduction in dielectrics
11. Measurement of the electric resistance of conductors
12. Electric resistance of substances

Editorial Reviews

"If your library does not have copies of the original editions, you should certainly ask them to consider getting these...and you may want one or two for yourself!" MAA Online, April 1999

From the Publisher