Abstract
IN the days when electrical engineering was emerging from physics and when alternating current circuit theory was in its infancy, progress was greatly helped by the fortunate circumstance that the equations to which the new theory led were formally similar to those already encountered in mechanics. Thus Maxwell, in his treatise, devotes a chapter to the dynamical principles and equations of Lagrange and Hamilton, and is at pains to stress the fact that the circuit equations fall within their scope. As it grew, electric circuit theory elaborated concepts, developed techniques, and invented a nomenclature, appropriate to the problems encountered and to their growing complexity. More recently, problems in mechanical vibrations, of increasing complexity, have presented themselves, notably in aeroplane design, and circuit theory has been able to repay with interest the debt it has for so long owed.
Mechanical Admittances and their Applications to Oscillation Problems
By Prof. W. J. Duncan. (Ministry of Supply: Aeronautical Research Council, Reports and Memoranda, No. 2000.) Pp. 128. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1947.) 22s. 6d. net.
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BICKLEY, W. Mechanical Admittances and their Applications to Oscillation Problems. Nature 161, 954 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161954a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161954a0