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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain

The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain

Smith, Crosbie

Paperback

Technology & EngineeringSports GeneralGeneral Science

ISBN10: 0226764214
ISBN13: 9780226764214
Publisher: Univ Of Chicago Pr
Published: Feb 26 1999
Pages: 411
Weight: 1.17
Height: 0.84 Width: 6.11 Depth: 9.14
Language: English
Although we take it for granted today, the concept of energy transformed nineteenth-century physics. In The Science of Energy, Crosbie Smith shows how a North British group of scientists and engineers, including James Joule, James Clerk Maxwell, William and James Thomson, Fleeming Jenkin, and P. G. Tait, developed energy physics to solve practical problems encountered by Scottish shipbuilders and marine engineers; to counter biblical revivalism and evolutionary materialism; and to rapidly enhance their own scientific credibility.

Replacing the language and concepts of classical mechanics with terms such as actual and potential energy, the North British group conducted their revolution in physics so astutely and vigorously that the concept of energy--a valuable commodity in the early days of industrialization--became their intellectual property. Smith skillfully places this revolution in its scientific and cultural context, exploring the actual creation of scientific knowledge during one of the most significant episodes in the history of physics.

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