XXIII.—On the Geometrical Mean Distance of Two Figures on a Plane
Open Access
- 1 January 1872
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Vol. 26 (4) , 729-733
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s008045680002559x
Abstract
There are several problems of great practical importance in electro-magnetic measurements, in which the value of a quantity has to be calculated by taking the sum of the logarithms of the distances of a system of parallel wires from a given point. The calculation is in some respects analogous to that in which we find the potential at a point due to a given system of equal particles, by adding the reciprocals of the distances of the particles from the given point. There is this difference, however, that whereas the reciprocal of a line is completely defined when we know the unit of length, the logarithm of a line has no meaning till we know not only the unit of length, but the modulus of the system logarithms.Keywords
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