The Relations of Physics of Electrons to Other Branches of Science

By Paul Langevin

This informational work explains the relation of physics to other branches of science. In describing this complex subject, the writer used simple language, avoiding any technicalities for the readers to grasp information quickly. A must-read for science enthusiasts. Contents include: The Electromagnetic Ether The Atom of Electricity Inertia and Radiation Dynamics of the Electron Electromagnetic Dynamics Cathode Rays Positive Electrons - α Rays Theory of Matter. Radioactivity Electric Properties Magnetic Properties Conclusion

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: Aug 10, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547169048

Book preview

Paul Langevin

The Relations of Physics of Electrons to Other Branches of Science

EAN 8596547169048

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

I. The Electromagnetic Ether

II. The Atom of Electricity

III. Inertia and Radiation

IV. Dynamics of the Electron

V. Electromagnetic Dynamics

VI. Cathode Rays

VII. Positive Electrons - α Rays

VIII. Theory of Matter. Radioactivity

IX. Electric Properties

X. Magnetic Properties

XI. Conclusion

​THE remarkable fertility shown by the new idea, based on the experimental fact of the discontinuous corpuscular structure of electrical charges, appears to be the most striking characteristic of the recent progress in electricity.

The consequences extend through all parts of the old physics; especially in electromagnetism, in optics, in radiant heat; they throw a new light even on the fundamental ideas of the Newtonian mechanics, and have revived the old atomistic ideas and caused them to be lifted from the rank of hypotheses to that of principles, owing to the proper relation which the laws of electrolysis have established between the discontinuous structure of matter and that of electricity.

Without seeking here to run through the whole field of their applications, I hope to indicate upon what solid foundations, both experimental and theoretical, rests at present the notion of the electron so fundamental to the new physics; to indicate the points which seem to require more complete light, and to show how vast is the synthesis which we can hope to attain, a synthesis whose main lines only are fixed to-day.

Under actual and provisional form, this synthesis constitutes an admirable instrument of research, and owing to it the questions extend in all directions. There is there a kind of New America, full of wealth yet unknown, where one can breathe freely, which invites all our activities, and which can teach many things to the Old World. ​

I. The Electromagnetic Ether

Table of Contents

(1) Fields and Charges. One can say that the combined efforts of Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz have resulted in giving us a precise knowledge of the properties of the electromagnetic ether, and of light; of a medium, homogeneous and void of matter, whose state is completely defined, with the exception of gravitation, when we know at any point the direction and magnitude of the electric and magnetic fields.

I insist, for the present, on the possibility of arriving at a conception of fields of force, as well as the related idea of electric charges, independently of all dynamics; I wish by this to imply only a knowledge of the laws of motion and of matter. The two fields possess this property, that their divergence is zero in all parts of the ether; that is to say, the flux of electric and magnetic force is rigorously zero across a closed surface which does not contain any matter in its interior. It is in fact always matter in the ordinary sense of the word which contains and can furnish the electric charges around which the divergence of field exists whose direction varies with the sign of the charges.

In extreme cases where the electric charges appear to be most completely separated from their material support, as in the case of the cathode rays for example, the experimental fact of the granular structure of these rays and the complete indestructibility of their charge, the fact finally that cathodic particles are charges possessing the fundamental property of matter, inertia, and experiencing acceleration in the electromagnetic field, these facts do not allow us to distinguish their charge from the so-called free charge of ordinary electrified matter.

Furthermore, we shall come to the idea not only that there can be no electric charge without matter, but that, in fact, there can be no matter without electricity, an aggregation of electrical centres of the two kinds. Electrons, analogous to the cathode particles, possess almost all the known properties of matter by the fact alone that these centres are electrified. We shall see within what limits this conception can be considered sufficiently known, and if it is necessary to superimpose other properties on those which result from electrically charged centres in order to obtain a satisfactory representation of matter; the ether alone, on the contrary, never contains any electricity. If experiment obliges us to admit the existence of electric charges, positive and negative, from the flux of electric force different from zero across a closed surface drawn entirely in the ether and containing matter, it is otherwise for the magnetic field. Experiment has never furnished an instance where a closed surface drawn in the ether was traversed by a magnetic