Electrodynamics from Ampere to Einstein

Olivier Darrigol0198505949, 9780198505945

This richly documented and abundantly illusrated work sheds new light on the origins of Einstein’s relativity.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Front Flap……Page 0
Electrodynamics from Ampere to Einstein……Page 2
Copyright……Page 5
Preface……Page 8
Contents……Page 14
Conventions and notations……Page 18
1 Foundations……Page 22
2 German precision……Page 63
3 British fields……Page 98
4 Maxwell……Page 158
5 British Maxwellians……Page 198
6 Open currents……Page 230
7 Conduction in electrolytes and gases……Page 286
8 The electron theories……Page 335
9 Old principles and a new world-view……Page 372
Appendix 1 Ampere’s forces……Page 416
Appendix 2 Absolute units……Page 420
Appendix 3 Neumann’s potential……Page 421
Appendix 4 Weber’s formula and consequences……Page 423
Appendix 5 Convective derivatives……Page 427
Appendix 6 Maxwell’s stress system……Page 431
Appendix 7 Helmholtz’s electrodynamics……Page 433
Appendix 8 Hertz’s 1884 derivation of the Maxwell equations……Page 441
Appendix 9 Electrodynamic Lagrangians……Page 443
Appendix 10 Electric convection……Page 450
Appendix 11 Fresnel’s coefficient……Page 455
Appendix 12 Cohn’s electrodynamics……Page 458
Abbreviations used in bibliographies……Page 464
Bibliography of primary literature……Page 466
Bibliography of secondary literature……Page 506
Index……Page 536
Back Flap……Page 558
Back Cover……Page 559