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Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH From Lodestone To Supermagnets Understanding Magnetic Phenomena by Alberto P. Guimarães
This easily accessible description charts the historical development of magnetism dating back some three thousand years. A. P. Guimaraes starts with the Greeks, with the first records of magnetism, and ends with hard disks and magnetic resonance imaging. Nowadays every electric and electronic device involves the use of magnets, such that magnetic devices, including magnetic media and recording equipment, represent a world market of over 100 billion dollars each year. Enjoyable reading for graduates, physics students, libraries, public libraries, school libraries, those interested in the natural sciences, lay readers, historians of physics.Preface.1. A Stone with a Soul.Magnetism - The First Records.Thales and the Beginnings of Greek Science.Plato and Aristotle.Magnetism in Greece.Chinese Records on Magnetism.Magnets in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.Roman Sources.2. The Finger of God.Introduction.Arab and Chinese Sources.Magnetism and the Compass in Europe.Magnetic Epistle from the Trenches.Wonderful is the Lodestone.Gilbert and the Scientific Revolution.3. The Unification: Electricity and Magnetism.Electric Shock.The Electric Battery.The Unity of Nature.The Little Hans Christian and the Great Hans Christian.Magnetism and Electric Currents.Animal Magnetism.4. "Acting where it is not": Magnetism and Action at a Distance.Magnetic Attraction.Subtle Matter: the Ether.The Apple and the Moon.Lines of Force Fill Space.The Triumph of the Fields.5. The Secrets of Matter.Discrete Matter.The Real Facts of Nature.The Quantum World.Minute Magnets.Can We Explain Magnetism?6. Magnets Large and Small.Introduction.The Great Magnet.Living Magnets.Magnetic Resonance: Dancing Spins.7. Supermagnets.Introduction.Materials and the Conquest of Nature.Box: Magnetic Characterization of Materials.The Development of Magnetic Materials: the End of the Cookbook Days.Supermagnets.Cool Magnets.Magnetic Recording: Magnets that Remember.Conclusions.Timeline.Glossary.References.Index.