The Electrical Researches of the Honorable Henry Cavendish - Hardcover

Maxwell, James Clerk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714610577 ISBN 13: 9780714610573

Publisher: Routledge, 1967

Synopsis

Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), the grandson of the second duke of Devonshire, wrote papers on electrical topics for the Royal Society, but the majority of his electrical experiments did not become known until they were collected and published by James Clerk Maxwell a century later, in 1879, long after other scientists had been credited with the same results. Among Cavendish's discoveries were the concept of electric potential, which he called the 'degree of electrification'; an early unit of capacitance, that of a sphere one inch in diameter; the formula for the capacitance of a plate capacitor; the concept of the dielectric constant of a material; the relationship between electric potential and current, now called Ohm's Law; laws for the division of current in parallel circuits, now attributed to Charles Wheatstone; and the inverse square law of variation of electric force with distance, now called Coulomb's Law.

About this title

About the Author

Henry Cavendish's writings on electricity from 1771 to 1781, edited a century later by James Clerk Maxwell.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1967
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714610577
• ISBN 13: 9780714610573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 532