A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

Volume 2 of Maxwell's 1873 influential contribution to physics covers magnetism and electromagnetism, including the electromagnetic theory of light.

James Clerk Maxwell (Author)

9781108014045, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 June 2010

484 pages, 7 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.61 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 electromagnetic theory. Volume 2 covers magnetism and electromagnetism, including the electromagnetic theory of light, the theory of magnetic action on light, and the electric theory of magnetism.

Part III. Magnetism: 1. Elementary theory of magnetism
2. Magnetic force and magnetic induction
3. Particular forms of magnets
4. Induced magnetization
5. Magnetic problems
6. Weber's theory of magnetic induction
7. Magnetic measurements
8. Terrestrial magnetism
Part IV. Electromagnetism: 1. Electromagnetic force
2. Mutual action of electric currents
3. Induction of electric currents
4. Induction of a current on itself
5. General equations of dynamics
6. Application of dynamics to electromagnetism
7. Electrokinetics
8. Exploration of the field by means of the secondary circuit
9. General equations
10. Dimensions of electric units
11. Energy and stress
12. Current-sheets
13. Parallel currents
14. Circular currents
15. Electromagnetic instruments
16. Electromagnetic observations
17. Electrical measurement of coefficients of induction
18. Determination of resistance in electromagnetic measure
19. Comparison of electrostatic with electromagnetic units
20. Electromagnetic theory of light
21. Magnetic action on light
22. Electric theory of magnetism
23. Theories of action at a distance
Index.

Subject Areas: Electronics engineering [TJF]