A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity

Edmund T. Whittaker

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Description

Edmund T. Whittaker wrote the classic history of how physicists explained light and electricity before Einstein. His subject runs from Descartes, who filled space with spinning whirlpools of fine matter, to the aether theories of the Victorian age. Maxwell's equations and the discovery of the electron close the long story.

Whittaker was a working mathematician who lived through the upheaval he describes, and it shows in his grasp of detail. Generations of students have treated the book as the standard history of field theory. It also reminds readers that the aether, now discarded, once organized the best science of its century.

Catalog record

CREATOREdmund T. Whittaker
COLLECTIONBOOKS
FORMATTXT
FILE SIZE61 KB
LICENSEPublic Domain
RIGHTSPUBLIC DOMAIN
SOURCETower of Babel archive

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