The Forces of Matter

by Michael Faraday

Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only

Written
1860
Language
English
Length
Short · 100 ppunder 120 pages
Difficulty
Approachable1 of 5 for a first-year reader

We recommendThe Forces of MatterPrometheus Books, 1993A standalone reprint; the lectures also appear in Harvard Classics volume 30 with the Candle lectures.

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Six Christmas lectures Faraday gave at the Royal Institution over the winter of 1859 to 1860, printed from shorthand notes. He treats in turn gravitation, cohesion, chemical affinity, heat, magnetism and electricity, showing by experiment how each force acts and how they are related and convertible one into another. The lectures are a plain introduction to the idea of the conservation and correlation of forces that dominated mid-Victorian physics.

No reading guide yet

The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Forces of Matter are verified against each program's published list.

What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.

Browse the 48 works that do have a guide →

On the Various Forces of Matter and Their Relations to Each Other, Various Forces of Matter, gravitation, cohesion, chemical affinity, heat, magnetism, electricity, Christmas lectures, correlation of forces