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"Heaviside" redirects here. For other uses, see Heaviside (disambiguation).
Oliver Heaviside
Portrait by Frances Hodge
Portrait by Frances Hodge
Born May 18, 1850(1850-05-18)
Camden Town, London, England
Died February 3, 1925 (aged 74)
Torquay, Devon, England
Residence Flag of England England
Nationality Flag of England English
Fields Electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist
Institutions Great Northern Telegraph Company
Known for Kennelly-Heaviside Layer
Reactance
Heaviside step function
Differential operators
Vector analysis
Heaviside condition
Notable awards Faraday Medal
Notes
Famous quote: Why should I refuse a good dinner simply because I don't understand the digestive processes involved?

Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, invented mathematical techniques to the solution of differential equations (later found to be equivalent to Laplace transforms), reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry uniting the fortunes of those two states Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Torquay (tɔrˈkiː is a town in the Unitary authority of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning The Kennelly-Heaviside layer, also known as the E region or simply the Heaviside layer, is a layer of ionised Gas occurring at 90&ndash150 km The Heaviside step function, H, also called the unit step function, is a discontinuous function whose value is zero for negative In Mathematics, a differential operator is an Operator defined as a function of the differentiation operator Vector calculus (also called vector analysis) is a field of Mathematics concerned with multivariable Real analysis of vectors in an Inner The Heaviside condition, stated by Oliver Heaviside, is used in the construction of Telegraph Cables etc The Faraday Medal is a medal awarded by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (now the Institution of Engineering and Technology) The bronze medal is awarded Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Events 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry uniting the fortunes of those two states Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning Complex plane In Mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the Real numbers obtained by adjoining an Imaginary unit, denoted An electrical network is an interconnection of Electrical elements such as Resistors Inductors Capacitors Transmission lines Voltage A differential equation is a mathematical Equation for an unknown function of one or several variables that relates the values of the In Mathematics, the Laplace transform is one of the best known and most widely used Integral transforms It is commonly used to produce an easily soluble algebraic In Classical electromagnetism, Maxwell's equations are a set of four Partial differential equations that describe the properties of the electric In Physics, magnetism is one of the Phenomena by which Materials exert attractive or repulsive Forces on other Materials. In Physics, a force is whatever can cause an object with Mass to Accelerate. In the various subfields of Physics, there exist two common usages of the term flux, both with rigorous mathematical frameworks Vector calculus (also called vector analysis) is a field of Mathematics concerned with multivariable Real analysis of vectors in an Inner Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Heaviside was born in London's Camden Town. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. He was short and red-headed, and suffered from scarlet fever during his youth. Scarlet fever is a disease caused by an Exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. The illness had a lasting impact on him, and Heaviside was left partially deaf. He was a good scholar (placed fifth out of five hundred students in 1865). He left school at 16 and to study at home in the subjects of telegraphy and electromagnetism. Electromagnetism is the Physics of the Electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a Force on particles that possess the property of Heaviside's uncle Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) was the original co-inventor of the telegraph back in the mid 1830s. Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS (6 February 1802 - 19 October 1875 was a British Scientist and Inventor of many scientific breakthroughs Wheatstone was married to Heaviside's mother's sister in London. During the early decades of Heaviside's life his uncle was an internationally celebrated expert in telegraphy and electromagnetism.

Between age 16 and 18 he studied at home. Then -- in the only paid employment he ever had[1] -- he took a job as a telegraph operator with the Great Northern Telegraph Company, working in Denmark and then in Newcastle upon Tyne, and was soon made a chief operator. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. His uncle's connections probably helped him get this job. Heaviside continued to study and at age 21 and 22 he published some research related to electric circuits and telegraphy. In 1874 at age 24 Heaviside quit his job to study fulltime on his own at his parents' home in London. Subsequently, Heaviside did not have a regular job. He remained single throughout his life.

In 1873 Heaviside had encountered James Clerk Maxwell's just published, and today famous, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (a two volume book). James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 &ndash 5 November 1879 was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. In his old age Heaviside recalled:

I remember my first look at the great treatise of Maxwell's when I was a young man. . . . I saw that it was great, greater and greatest, with prodigious possibilities in its power. . . . I was determined to master the book and set to work. I was very ignorant. I had no knowledge of mathematical analysis (having learned only school algebra and trigonometry which I had largely forgotten) and thus my work was laid out for me. It took me several years before I could understand as much as I possibly could. Then I set Maxwell aside and followed my own course. And I progressed much more quickly. . . . It will be understood that I preach the gospel according to my interpretation of Maxwell. [2]

Doing fulltime research from home, he helped develop transmission line theory (also known as the "telegrapher's equations"). A transmission line is the material medium or structure that forms all or part of a path from one place to another for directing the transmission of energy The telegrapher's equations (or just telegraph equations) are a pair of linear Differential equations which describe the Voltage and current on Heaviside showed mathematically that uniformly distributed inductance in a telegraph line would diminish both attenuation and distortion, and that, if the inductance were great enough and the insulation resistance not too high, the circuit would be distortionless while currents of all frequencies would be equally attenuated. The Heaviside condition, stated by Oliver Heaviside, is used in the construction of Telegraph Cables etc In Physics, attenuation (in some context also called extinction) is the gradual loss in intensity of any kind of Flux through a medium A distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic of an object image sound waveform or other form of information or representation In Electrical circuits, any Electric current i produces a Magnetic field and hence generates a total Magnetic flux \Phi acting An insulator, also called a Dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of Electric current. Electrical resistance is a ratio of the degree to which an object opposes an Electric current through it measured in Ohms Its reciprocal quantity is Digital electronics are Electronics systems that use Digital signals Digital electronics are representations of Boolean algebra also see Electric current is the flow (movement of Electric charge. The SI unit of electric current is the Ampere. Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time. Heaviside's equations helped further the implementation of the telegraph.

Middle years

In 1880, Heaviside researched the skin effect in telegraph transmission lines. The skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the In 1884 he recast Maxwell's mathematical analysis from its original cumbersome form (they had already been recast as quaternions) to its modern vector terminology, thereby reducing the original twenty equations in twenty unknowns down to the four differential equations in two unknowns we now know as Maxwell's equations. Quaternions, in Mathematics, are a non-commutative extension of Complex numbers They were first described by the Irish Mathematician A differential equation is a mathematical Equation for an unknown function of one or several variables that relates the values of the In Classical electromagnetism, Maxwell's equations are a set of four Partial differential equations that describe the properties of the electric The four re-formulated Maxwell's equations describe the nature of static and moving electric charges and magnetic dipoles, and the relationship between the two, namely electromagnetic induction. In 1880 he patented, in England, the co-axial Cable. Coaxial cable is a cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer typically made from a flexible material with a high Dielectric constant, all

Between 1880 and 1887, Heaviside developed the operational calculus (involving the D notation for the differential operator, which he is credited with creating), a method of solving differential equations by transforming them into ordinary algebraic equations which caused a great deal of controversy when first introduced, owing to the lack of rigor in his derivation of it. In Mathematics, operator theory is the branch of Functional analysis which deals with Bounded linear operators and their properties In Mathematics, a differential operator is an Operator defined as a function of the differentiation operator In Mathematics, an algebraic equation over a given field is an Equation of the form P = Q where P and Q Rigour or rigor (see spelling differences) has a number of meanings in relation to intellectual life and discourse He famously said, "Mathematics is an experimental science, and definitions do not come first, but later on. " He was replying to criticism over his use of operators that were not clearly defined. On another occasion he stated somewhat more defensively, "I do not refuse my dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion. "

In 1887, Heaviside proposed that induction coils (inductors) should be added to telephone and telegraph lines to increase their self-induction in and correct the distortion from which they suffered. In Electronics, a loading coil or load coil is a Coil ( Inductor) that does not provide coupling to any other circuit, but An inductor is a passive electrical component designed to provide Inductance in a circuit For political reasons, this was not done. The importance of Heaviside's work remained undiscovered for some time after publication in The Electrician, and so its rights lay in the public domain. The Electrician was a journal of Electromagnetics published by Williams & Co AT&T later employed one of its own scientists, George A. Before proposing a merge request please see Talk and see if the merger you propose has recently been made and Campbell, and an external investigator Michael I. Pupin to determine whether Heaviside's work was incomplete or incorrect in any way. Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin, PhD LLD ( 4 October, 1858 &ndash 12 March, 1935; Serbian Cyrillic: Михајло Идворски Campbell and Pupin extended Heaviside's work, and AT&T filed for patents covering not only their research, but also the technical method of constructing the coils previously invented by Heaviside. AT&T later offered Heaviside money in exchange for his rights; it is possible that the Bell engineers' respect for Heaviside influenced this offer. However, Heaviside refused the offer, declining to accept any money unless the company were to give him full recognition. Heaviside was chronically poor, making his refusal of the offer even more striking. [3]

In two papers of 1888 and 1889, Heaviside calculated the deformations of electric and magnetic fields surrounding a moving charge, as well as the effects of it entering a denser medium. This included a prediction of what is now known as Cherenkov radiation, and inspired Fitzgerald to suggest what now is known as the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction. Čerenkov radiation (also spelled Cerenkov or Cherenkov) is Electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle (such as an Length contraction, according to Hendrik Lorentz, is the physical phenomenon of a decrease in Length detected by an observer in objects that travel at any non-zero

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Heaviside worked on the concept of electromagnetic mass. The term "concept" is traced back to 1554–60 ( l conceptum - something conceived but what is today termed "the classical theory of concepts" is the theory of Aristotle The electromagnetic mass of an electrically charged object such as an Electron, is the apparent increase in its Mass due to its interaction with the Heaviside treated this as "real" as material mass, capable of producing the same effects. Mass is a fundamental concept in Physics, roughly corresponding to the Intuitive idea of how much Matter there is in an object Wilhelm Wien later verified Heaviside's expression (for low velocities). Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien ( German:) ( 13 January 1864 &ndash 30 August 1928) was a German physicist In Physics, velocity is defined as the rate of change of Position.

In 1891 the British Royal Society recognized Heaviside's contributions to the mathematical description of electromagnetic phenomena by naming him a Fellow of the Royal Society. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 In 1905 Heaviside was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Göttingen. The University of Göttingen ( German: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) is a University in the city of Göttingen, Germany.

Later years

Heaviside's grave in Paignton cemetery
Heaviside's grave in Paignton cemetery

In 1902, Heaviside proposed the existence of the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer of the ionosphere which bears his name. Paignton (ˈpeɪntən is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the Unitary authority of The Kennelly-Heaviside layer, also known as the E region or simply the Heaviside layer, is a layer of ionised Gas occurring at 90&ndash150 km Heaviside's proposal included means by which radio signals are transmitted around the earth's curvature. The existence of the ionosphere was confirmed in 1923. The predictions by Heaviside, combined with Planck's radiation theory, probably discouraged further attempts to detect radio waves from the Sun and other astronomical objects. The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System. s are significant physical entities, associations or structures which current Science has confirmed to exist in Space. For whatever reason, there seem to have been no attempts for 30 years, until Jansky's development of radio astronomy in 1932. Karl Guthe Jansky ( October 22, 1905 &ndash February 14, 1950) was an American Physicist and Radio Engineer Radio astronomy is a subfield of Astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies.

In later years his behavior became quite eccentric. Though he had been an active cyclist in his youth, his health seriously declined in his sixth decade. During this time Heaviside would sign letters with the initials "W. O. R. M. " after his name though the letters did not stand for anything. Heaviside also reportedly started painting his fingernails pink and had granite blocks moved into his house for furniture. Heaviside died at Torquay in Devon, and is buried in Paignton cemetery. Torquay (tɔrˈkiː is a town in the Unitary authority of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name Paignton (ˈpeɪntən is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the Unitary authority of Most of his recognition was gained posthumously.

Innovations and discoveries

Heaviside advanced the idea that the Earth's uppermost atmosphere contained an ionized layer known as the ionosphere; in this regard, he predicted the existence of what later was dubbed the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer. The ionosphere is the uppermost part of the atmosphere, distinguished because it is Ionized by solar radiation The Kennelly-Heaviside layer, also known as the E region or simply the Heaviside layer, is a layer of ionised Gas occurring at 90&ndash150 km He developed the transmission line theory (also known as the "telegrapher's equations"). A transmission line is the material medium or structure that forms all or part of a path from one place to another for directing the transmission of energy He also independently co-discovered the Poynting vector. For the compulsory pre-trial disclosure of documents relevant to a case see Discovery (law Discovery Observations form acts of detecting In Physics, the Poynting vector can be thought of as representing the Energy Flux (in W/m2 of an Electromagnetic field.

Heaviside simplified and made useful for the sciences the original Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. In Classical electromagnetism, Maxwell's equations are a set of four Partial differential equations that describe the properties of the electric Electromagnetism is the Physics of the Electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a Force on particles that possess the property of This innovation from the reformulation of Maxwell's original equations gives the four vector equations known today. He developed the Heaviside step function, which he used to model the current in an electric circuit. The Heaviside step function, H, also called the unit step function, is a discontinuous function whose value is zero for negative Electric current is the flow (movement of Electric charge. The SI unit of electric current is the Ampere. An electrical network is an interconnection of Electrical elements such as Resistors Inductors Capacitors Transmission lines Voltage He developed vectors (and vector calculus). Vector calculus (also called vector analysis) is a field of Mathematics concerned with multivariable Real analysis of vectors in an Inner He formed the operator method for solving linear differential equations. In Mathematics, an operator is a function which operates on (or modifies another function The word linear comes from the Latin word linearis, which means created by lines. A differential equation is a mathematical Equation for an unknown function of one or several variables that relates the values of the Thomas John l'Anson Bromwich (UK mathematician, 1875-1929) supplemented Heaviside's operator method by providing a rigorous mathematical basis. (Please see inverse Laplace transform, also known as the "Bromwich integral". In Mathematics, the inverse Laplace transform of F ( s) is the function f ( t) which has the property \mathcal{L}\left\{ ) Heaviside's operator method is more or less similar to the modern approach of using Laplace transform. In Mathematics, the Laplace transform is one of the best known and most widely used Integral transforms It is commonly used to produce an easily soluble algebraic

Electromagnetic terms

Oliver Heaviside coined the following terms:

See also

Publications

Further reading

Sorted by date.

External links and references

Notes

  1. ^ History of Wireless, a book by Tapan K Sarkar
  2. ^ History of Wireless, a book by Tapan K Sarkar
  3. ^ Norbert Wiener (1993). Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Nature is a prominent Scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869 PMID is an Acronym for PubMed Identifier or more specifically PubMed Unique Identifier which is a unique number assigned to each PubMed Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas. MIT Press, 70-75.  

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone


Persondata
NAME Heaviside, Oliver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Camden Town, London, England
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1925
PLACE OF DEATH Torquay, Devon, England
Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. For the game see 1850 (board game. 1850 ( MDCCCL) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry uniting the fortunes of those two states Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Torquay (tɔrˈkiː is a town in the Unitary authority of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
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