The Analytical Theory of Heat
Notebook
Joseph Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur (1822) founded the mathematical theory of heat conduction and, through the trigonometric series that now bear his name, transformed mathematical analysis itself. Its Preliminary Discourse is a manifesto for mathematical physics—Fourier's declaration that natural phenomena obey discoverable mathematical laws and that “mathematical analysis is as extensive as nature itself.” The opening sections of Chapter I set out the physical conceptions on which the theory rests—the measurement of temperature and specific heat, the interior and surface conductivities of bodies, and the principle by which heat passes between neighbouring parts. The translation is Alexander Freeman's of 1878.
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