The Correlation Of Physical Forces - Softcover

William Robert Grove

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461410583 ISBN 13: 9780461410587

Publisher: HardPress, 2019

Synopsis

The Correlation Of Physical Forces by William Robert Grove is a landmark 19th?century work in which Grove develops a unified, dynamical theory of matter and energy. Written as a sequence of lectures, it argues that the principal affections of matter—heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, and motion—are correlative and mutually convertible, not reducible to abstract, first causes. Grove critiques the notion of abstract causation and latent entities, insisting that physical science should seek facts and relations rather than ultimate essences. He treats heat as a communicable molecular repulsive force, explains how motion, heat, and other forces interconvert (e.g., motion can produce heat and electricity, electricity can produce magnetism and light, and heat can induce chemical changes), and insists that all forces are interdependent within a network of reciprocal relations. Drawing on the work of Joule, Seebeck, Faraday, and others, the text surveys experiments on friction, compression, conduction, and the correlations among forces, and argues that science is converging toward a comprehensive dynamical theory in which no force acts in isolation but in a state of mutual influence. It also explores the relation between light and matter, photography, and cosmological speculations, always returning to the central idea of force as motion’s correlated theatre.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461410583
• ISBN 13: 9780461410587
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 274