Mathematical and Physical Papers

The collected papers of Sir George Stokes, the outstanding and influential nineteenth-century Cambridge mathematician.

George Gabriel Stokes (Author)

9781108002677, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

404 pages
21.6 x 2.3 x 14 cm, 0.51 kg

Sir George Stokes (1819–1903) established the science of hydrodynamics with his law of viscosity describing the velocity of a small sphere through a viscous fluid. He published no books, but was a prolific lecturer and writer of papers for the Royal Society, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Victoria Institute and other mathematical and scientific institutions. These collected papers (issued between 1880 and 1905) are therefore the only readily available record of the work of an outstanding and influential mathematician, who was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge for over fifty years, Master of Pembroke College, President of the Royal Society (1885–1890), Associate Secretary of the Royal Commission on the University of Cambridge and a Member of Parliament for the University.

Obituary notice by Lord Rayleigh
1. Note on certain formulæ in the calculus of operations
2. An experiment on electro-magnetic rotation
3. On the foci of lines seen through a crystalline plate
4. On certain movements of radiometers
5. On the question of a theoretical limit to the apertures of microscopic objectives
6. On an easy and at the same time accurate method of determining the ratio of the dispersions of glasses intended for objectives
7. On a method of detecting inequalities of unknown periods in a series of observations
8. Description of the card supported for sunshine recorders adopted at the meteorological office
9. On a simple mode of eliminating errors of adjustment in delicate observations of compared spectra
10. Discussion of the results of some experiments with whirled anemometers
11. On the determination of the constants of the cup anemometer by experiments with a whirling machine
12. Note on the reduction of Mr Crookes's experiments on the decrement of the arc of vibration of a mice plate oscillating within a bulb containing more or less rarefied gas
13. On the cause of the light border frequently noticed in photographs just outside the outline of a dark body seen against the sky
14. Extracts from reports of the Committee of Solar Physics
15. Memorandum for the use of observers with Professor Balfour Stewart's actinometer
16. On the highest wave of uniform propagation
17. On the maximum wave of uniform propagation
18. Note on the theory of the solitary wave
19. The outskirts of the solitary wave
20. On a remarkable phenomenon of crystalline reflection
21. The coefficient of viscosity of air
22. Note on the determination of arbitrary constants which appear as multipliers of semi-convergent series
23. On a graphical representation of the results of Dr Alder Wright's experiments on ternary alloys
24. On an optical proof of the existence of suspended matter in flames
25. On the reactions occurring in flames
26. The influence of surface-loading on the flexure of beams
27. On the best methods of recording the direct intensity of solar radiation
28. On the nature of the Röntgen rays
29. On the nature of the Röntgen rays (Wilde lecture)
30. Mathematical proof of the identity of the stream lines obtained by means of a viscous film with those of a perfect fluid moving in two dimensions
31. On the discontinuity of arbitrary constants that appear as multipliers of semi-convergent series
32. On the methods of chemical fractionation
33. The ultra-violet Spectrum of Radium
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Mathematics [PB]