SOME six years ago Dr. Southwell published his now famous treatise on “Relaxation Methods in Engineering Science”, in which he gave an account of the investigations of his school of research workers into the applications of relaxation methods to systems of finite freedom and to continuous systems in one dimension. In this second treatise he expounds the applications of the relaxation method to numerous problems of continuous systems in two dimensions, with special reference to plane-potential and associated problems. A great variety of physical problems is considered in detail, the examples being selected from the domains of electricity, hydrodynamics, electricity and magnetism, the conduction of heat and hydraulics. In all, some thirty-five problems are discussed with full numerical details, so that this volume forms a remarkable tribute to the energy and enthusiasm of the author and his fellow workers.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/158727a0

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