Description
Book SynopsisThree quarters of a century elapsed between Ampère''s definition of electrodynamics and Einstein''s reform of the concepts of space and time. The two events occurred in utterly different worlds: the French Academy of Sciences of the 1820s seems very remote from the Bern patent office of the early 1900s, and the forces between two electric currents quite foreign to the optical synchronization of clocks. Yet Ampère''s electrodynamics and Einstein''s relativity are firmly connected through an historical chain involving German extensions of Ampère''s work, competition with British field conceptions, Dutch synthesis, and fin de siècle criticism of the aether-matter connection. Darrigol''s book retraces this intriguing evolution, with a physicist''s attention to conceptual and instrumental developments, and with an historian''s awareness of their cultural and material embeddings. This book exploits a wide range of sources, and incorporates the many important insights of other scholars. Thoro
Trade Review... this is both a pioneering work that lays firm foundations for all further investigations in this fundamental field and one of the highest quality. * ISIS *
... the scholarship is detailed and impeccable. * ISIS *
... an important book that should stand as one of the first points of reference for anyone seeking a sound technical introduction to the history of electrodynamics in the nineteenth century. * The Royal Society Notes and Records *
... carefully interweaves the history of theoretical innovation with the history of the experimental work upon which the theory was founded ... The author has done an extremely impressive job in digesting and summarizing a large and often highly technical primary and secondary literature, and in telling the story in his own lucid and engaging style. The key mathematical theories of electrodynamics are dealt with in a clear and concise manner ... very useful end-of-chapter summaries. * The Royal Society Notes and Records *
Table of ContentsPREFACE; 1 FOUNDATIONS; 2 GERMAN PRECISION; 3 BRITISH FIELDS; 4 CLERK MAXWELL; 5 BRITISH MAXWELLIANS; 6 OPEN CURRENTS; 7 CONDUCTION OF ELECTROLYTES AND GASES; 8 THE ELECTRON THEORIES; 9 OLD PRINCIPLES AND A NEW WORLD VIEW; APPENDICES 1-12
