Abstract
RECENT text-books1 reflect a certain uneasiness concerning the presentation to students of 'engineering' electricity. Some teachers advocate classical field theory alone, others introduce the electron theory, linking it with field theory at every stage. But the awkward unsolved problems of theory cannot then be avoided ; thus, the two writers cited take quite different views concerning the induction of a current by motion of conductor and magnet respectively. These theoretical problems do not concern the designer and inventor, who needs above all a mental picture which will give a correct qualitative prediction of the functioning of any proposed apparatus. The formulæ which he will then apply for calculation may, as we know, be derived from various quite different hypotheses. Such differences as appear capable of deciding between different hypotheses are beyond the limits of error of our experimental powers2.
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e.g., Zeleny, "Elements of Electricity and Magnetism" (New York, 1935); Cullwick, "Fundamentals of Electricity and Magnetism" (Cambridge, 1939).
O'Rahilly, "Electromagnetics: a Discussion of Fundamentals" (London and Cork, 1938).
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HATFIELD, H. The Electromagnetic Mental Picture. Nature 149, 248 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149248a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149248a0
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