A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

Volume 1 of Maxwell's 1873 influential contribution to physics covers the first elements of his electromagnetic theory: electrostatics and electrokinematics.

James Clerk Maxwell (Author)

9781108014038, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 June 2010

484 pages, 5 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.86 kg

Arguably the most influential nineteenth-century scientist for twentieth-century physics, James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. A fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, Maxwell became, in 1871, the first Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. His famous equations - a set of four partial differential equations that relate the electric and magnetic fields to their sources, charge density and current density - first appeared in fully developed form in his 1873 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. This two-volume textbook brought together all the experimental and theoretical advances in the field of electricity and magnetism known at the time, and provided a methodical and graduated introduction to electromagnetism. Volume 1 covers the first elements of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory: electrostatics, and electrokinematics, including detailed analyses of electrolysis, conduction in three dimensions, and conduction through heterogeneous media.

Part I. Electrostatics: 1. Description of phenomena
2. Elementary mathematical theory of electricity
3. Systems of conductors
4. General theorems
5. Mechanical action between electrified bodies
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 II. Electrokinematics: 1. The electric current
2. Conduction and resistance
3. Electromotive force between bodies in contact
4. Electrolysis
5. Electrolytic 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.

Subject Areas: Electronics engineering [TJF]