The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside

The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside PDF Author: Basil Mahon
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1633883310
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
"This biography of Oliver Heaviside profiles the life of an underappreciated genius and describes his many contributions to electrical science, which proved to be essential to the future of mass communications"--

The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside

The Forgotten Genius of Oliver Heaviside PDF Author: Basil Mahon
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1633883310
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
"This biography of Oliver Heaviside profiles the life of an underappreciated genius and describes his many contributions to electrical science, which proved to be essential to the future of mass communications"--

Oliver Heaviside

Oliver Heaviside PDF Author: Paul J. Nahin
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801869099
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Acclaimed biography of the pioneer of modern electrical theory featuring a new preface by author. "He was a man who often was incapable of conducting himself properly in the most elementary social interactions. His only continuing contacts with women were limited to his mother, nieces, and housekeepers. He was a man who knew the power of money and desired it, but refused to work for it, preferring to live off the sweat of his family and long-suffering friends, whom he often insulted even as they paid his bills."—Excerpt from the book This, then, was Oliver Heaviside, a pioneer of modern electrical theory. Born into a low social class of Victorian England, Heaviside made advances in mathematics by introducing the operational calculus; in physics, where he formulated the modern-day expressions of Maxwell's Laws of electromagnetism; and in electrical engineering, through his duplex equations. With a new preface by the author, this acclaimed biography will appeal to historians of technology and science, as well as to scientists and engineers who wish to learn more about this remarkable man.

Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field

Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field PDF Author: Nancy Forbes
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616149434
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
The story of two brilliant nineteenth-century scientists who discovered the electromagnetic field, laying the groundwork for the amazing technological and theoretical breakthroughs of the twentieth century Two of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by forty years - discovered the existence of the electromagnetic field and devised a radically new theory which overturned the strictly mechanical view of the world that had prevailed since Newton's time. The authors, veteran science writers with special expertise in physics and engineering, have created a lively narrative that interweaves rich biographical detail from each man's life with clear explanations of their scientific accomplishments. Faraday was an autodidact, who overcame class prejudice and a lack of mathematical training to become renowned for his acute powers of experimental observation, technological skills, and prodigious scientific imagination. James Clerk Maxwell was highly regarded as one of the most brilliant mathematical physicists of the age. He made an enormous number of advances in his own right. But when he translated Faraday's ideas into mathematical language, thus creating field theory, this unified framework of electricity, magnetism and light became the basis for much of later, 20th-century physics. Faraday's and Maxwell's collaborative efforts gave rise to many of the technological innovations we take for granted today - from electric power generation to television, and much more. Told with panache, warmth, and clarity, this captivating story of their greatest work - in which each played an equal part - and their inspiring lives will bring new appreciation to these giants of science.

Electromagnetic Theory

Electromagnetic Theory PDF Author: Oliver Heaviside
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Earth (Planet)
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description


Degrees Kelvin

Degrees Kelvin PDF Author: David Lindley
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309096189
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
LORD KELVIN. In 1840, a precocious 16-year-old by the name of William Thomson spent his summer vacation studying an extraordinarily sophisticated mathematical controversy. His brilliant analysis inspired lavish praise and made the boy an instant intellectual celebrity. As a young scholar William dazzled a Victorian society enthralled with the seductive authority and powerful beauty of scientific discovery. At a time when no one really understood heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, Thomson found key connections between them, laying the groundwork for two of the cornerstones of 19th century science-the theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics. Charismatic, confident, and boyishly handsome, Thomson was not a scientist who labored quietly in a lab, plying his trade in monkish isolation. When scores of able tinkerers were flummoxed by their inability to adapt overland telegraphic cables to underwater, intercontinental use, Thomson took to the high seas with new equipment that was to change the face of modern communications. And as the world's navies were transitioning from wooden to iron ships, they looked to Thomson to devise a compass that would hold true even when surrounded by steel. Gaining fame and wealth through his inventive genius, Thomson was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria for his many achievements. He was the first scientist ever to be so honored. Indeed, his name survives in the designation of degrees Kelvin, the temperature scale that begins with absolute zero, the point at which atomic motion ceases and there is a complete absence of heat. Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was Great Britain's unrivaled scientific hero. But as the century drew to a close and Queen Victoria's reign ended, this legendary scientific mind began to weaken. He grudgingly gave way to others with a keener, more modern vision. But the great physicist did not go quietly. With a ready pulpit at his disposal, he publicly proclaimed his doubts over the existence of atoms. He refused to believe that radioactivity involved the transmutation of elements. And believing that the origin of life was a matter beyond the expertise of science and better left to theologians, he vehemently opposed the doctrines of evolution, repeatedly railing against Charles Darwin. Sadly, this pioneer of modern science spent his waning years arguing that the Earth and the Sun could not be more than 100 million years old. And although his early mathematical prowess had transformed our understanding of the forces of nature, he would never truly accept the revolutionary changes he had helped bring about, and it was others who took his ideas to their logical conclusion. In the end Thomson came to stand for all that was old and complacent in the world of 19th century science. Once a scientific force to be reckoned with, a leader to whom others eagerly looked for answers, his peers in the end left him behind-and then meted out the ultimate punishment for not being able to keep step with them. For while they were content to bury him in Westminster Abbey alongside Isaac Newton, they used his death as an opportunity to write him out of the scientific record, effectively denying him his place in history. Kelvin's name soon faded from the headlines, his seminal ideas forgotten, his crucial contributions overshadowed. Destined to become the definitive biography of one of the most important figures in modern science, Degrees Kelvin unravels the mystery of a life composed of equal parts triumph and tragedy, hubris and humility, yielding a surprising and compelling portrait of a complex and enigmatic man.

The Maxwellians

The Maxwellians PDF Author: Bruce J. Hunt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801482342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
James Clerk Maxwell published the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873. At his death, six years later, his theory of the electromagnetic field was neither well understood nor widely accepted. By the mid-1890s, however, it was regarded as one of the most fundamental and fruitful of all physical theories. Bruce J. Hunt examines the joint work of a group of young British physicists--G. F. FitzGerald, Oliver Heaviside, and Oliver Lodge--along with a key German contributor, Heinrich Hertz. It was these "Maxwellians" who transformed the fertile but half-finished ideas presented in the Treatise into the concise and powerful system now known as "Maxwell's theory."

Aether and Gravitation

Aether and Gravitation PDF Author: William George Hooper
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ether (Space)
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description


Aldous Huxley's Hands

Aldous Huxley's Hands PDF Author: Allene Symons
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1633881164
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Psychedelics, neuroscience, and historical biography come together when a journalist finds a lost photograph of Aldous Huxley and uncovers a hidden side of the celebrated author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. Allene Symons had no inkling that Aldous Huxley was once a friend of her father's until the summer of 2001 when she discovered a box of her dad's old photographs. For years in the 1940s and '50s, her father had meticulously photographed human hands in the hope of developing a science of predicting human aptitudes and even mental illness. In the box, along with all the other hand images, was one with the name of Aldous Huxley on the back. How was it possible for two such unlikely people to cross paths--her aircraft-engineer father and the famous author?This question sparked a journalist's quest to understand what clearly seemed to be a little- known interest of Aldous Huxley. Through interviews, road trips, and family documents, the author reconstructs a time peaking in mid-1950s Los Angeles when Huxley experimented with psychedelic substances, ran afoul of gatekeepers, and advocated responsible use of such hallucinogens to treat mental illness as well as to achieve states of mind called mystical. Because the author's father had studied hundreds of hands, including those of schizophrenics, he was invited into Huxley's research and discussion circle. This intriguing narrative about the early psychedelic era throws new light on one of the 20th-century's foremost intellectuals, showing that his experiments in consciousness presaged pivotal scientific research underway today.

Oliver Heaviside

Oliver Heaviside PDF Author: Basil Mahon
Publisher: IET
ISBN: 0863419658
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
A compelling account of the life of one of the great pioneers of electrical science Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925). He showed how to analyse circuit, how to rid telephone lines of distortion and interpreted Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism in a way that working engineers and physicists could understand.

The Man Who Changed Everything

The Man Who Changed Everything PDF Author: Basil Mahon
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470012544
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
This is the first biography in twenty years of James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest scientists of our time and yet a man relatively unknown to the wider public. Approaching science with a freshness unbound by convention or previous expectations, he produced some of the most original scientific thinking of the nineteenth century — and his discoveries went on to shape the twentieth century.