Mathematical and Physical Papers - Volume 4

A six-volume collection of the scientific papers of Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), one of Britain's most eminent mathematical physicists.

Hydrodynamics: 1. On vortex atoms; 2. On vortex motion; 3. The translatory velocity of a circular vortex ring; 4. On the motion of free solids through a liquid; 5. Influence of wind and capillarity on waves in water supposed frictionless; 6. Ripples and waves; 7. On the forces experienced by solids immersed in a moving liquid; 8. On attractions and repulsions due to vibration; 9. On the motion of rigid solids in a liquid circulating irrotationally through perforations in them or in a fixed solid; 10. Vortex statics; 11. On the precessional motion of a liquid; 12. Floating magnets; 13. On gravitational oscillations of rotating water; 14. On the formation of coreless vortices by the motion of a solid through an inviscid incompressible fluid; 15. Vibrations of a columnar vortex; 16. On the stability of steady and of periodic fluid motion; 17. On a disturbing infinity in Lord Rayleigh's solution for waves in a plane vortex stratum; 18. On the average pressure due to impulse of vortex-rings on a solid; 19. On the figures of equilibrium of a rotating mass of fluid; 20. On the motion of a liquid within an ellipsoidal hollow; 21. On the stability and small oscillation of a perfect liquid full of nearly straight coreless vortices; 22. Towards the efficiency of sails, windmills, screw-propellers in water and air, and aeroplanes; 23. On the resistance of a fluid to a plane kept moving uniformly in a direction inclined to it at a small angle; 24. On the motion of a heterogeneous liquid, commencing from rest with a given motion of its boundary; 25. On the doctrine of discontinuity of fluid motion, in connection with the resistance against a solid moving through a fluid; Theory of the Tides: 26. On an alleged error in Laplace's Theory of the Tides; 27. Note on the 'Oscillations of the First Species' in Laplace's Theory of the Tides; 28. General integration of Laplace's differential equation of the tides; Waves on Water: 29. On stationary waves in flowing water; 30. On the waves produced by a single impulse in water of any depth, or in a dispersive medium; 31. On the front and rear of a free procession of waves in deep water; 32. On ship waves; 33. On the propagation of laminar motion through a turbulently moving inviscid liquid; 34. Rectilineal motion of viscous fluid between two parallel planes; 35. On deep-water two-dimensional waves produced by any given initiating disturbance; 36. On the front and rear of a free procession of waves in deep water; 37. Deep water ship-waves; 38. Deep sea ship-waves; 39. Initiation of deep-sea waves of three classes. 1. from a single displacement, 2. from a group of equal and similar displacements, 3. by a periodically varying surface-pressure; 40. Physical explanation of the mackerel sky; General Dynamics: 41. On some kinematical and dynamical theorems; 42. On a new form of centrifugal governor; 43. On a new astronomical clock, and a pendulum governor for uniform motion; 44. On the perturbation of the compass produced by the rolling of the ship; 45. On a new form of astronomical clock with free pendulum and independently governed uniform motion for escapement-wheel; 46. Elasticity viewed as possibly a mode of motion; 47. Steps towards a kinetic theory of matter; 48. On a gyrostatic working model of the magnetic compass; 49. Gyrostatic experiments; 50. On some test cases for the Maxwell-Boltzmann doctrine regarding distribution of energy; 51. On a decisive test-case disproving the Maxwell-Boltzmann doctrine distribution of kinetic energy; 52. On periodic motion of a finite conservative system; 53. On a theorem in plane kinetic trigonometry suggested by Gauss's theorem of curvatura integra; 54. On the stability of periodic motion; 55. On graphic solution of dynamical problems; 56. Reduction of every problem of two freedoms in conservative dynamics to the drawing of geodetic lines on a surface of giv