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An early formulation by Stokes of the theories of the rotatory polarizations of light

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Joseph Larmor
Joseph Larmor
Affiliation:
Lucasian Professor
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Abstract

The two letters now communicated are from G. G. Stokes to W. Thomson, of dates Dec. 12–13, 1848, three years after Faraday's great magneto-optic discovery. They formulated already the permissible types for general equations of propagation, virtually on the basis of the very modern criterion of covariance,—relative to all changes of the spatial frame of reference in the case of active fluids, but having regard to the fixed direction of the extraneous magnetic field in the Faraday case. Their form was elucidated in each case by correlation with a remarkable and significant type of rotational stress in a propagating medium.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 1924 , pp. 76 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1924

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References

* Lord Kelvin graduated in the Mathematical Tripos of 1845, and soon after became Professor at Glasgow: Sir George Stokes became Lucasian Professor in 1849.

* These are not covariant: they are corrected in the letter following.

* The signs of (ω′, ω′′, ω′′′) here should be changed.

* For they are correlative to the stress in an isotropic incompressible elastic solid for which (θx, θy, θz) is the displacement.