Popular Lectures and Addresses

A collection of Kelvin's scientific lectures on basic topics in physics such as light, heat, electricity and gravity.

William Thomson (Author)

9781108029773, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2011

478 pages, 56 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.6 kg

William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge. While only in his twenties, he was awarded the University of Glasgow's chair in natural philosophy, which he was to hold for over fifty years. He is best known through the Kelvin, the unit of measurement of temperature named after him in consequence of his development of an absolute scale of temperature. These volumes collect together Kelvin's lectures for a wider audience. In a convivial but never condescending style, he outlines a range of scientific subjects to audiences of his fellow scientists. The range of topics covered reflects Kelvin's broad interests and his stature as one of the most eminent of Victorian scientists. Volume 1, published in 1889, includes talks about the constitution of matter and basic topics in physics such as light, heat, electricity and gravity.

Preface
1. Capillary action
2. Electrical units of measurement
3. The sorting demon of Maxwell
4. Elasticity viewed as possibly a mode of motion
5. The size of atoms
6. Steps towards a kinetic theory of matter
7. The six gateways of knowledge
8. The wave theory of light
9. On the age of the sun's heat
10. On the sun's heat
11. Electrical measurement
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]