Alternating Current

Alternating Current

Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Howard Fisher on April 26, 2023 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "The technology of alternating current was developed almost entirely in response to the emerging demands of large-scale power generation and transmission. Perhaps for that reason, educational institutions tend to treat it as a subject of practical rather than theoretical interest: alternating current is studied extensively in engineering schools, more perfunctorily in physics departments. But alternating current reveals a number of perplexing electrical phenomena that carry deep theoretical significance. Maxwell understood these phenomena through several remarkable analogies, couched in a highly metaphorical terminology that later generations viewed with suspicion and disdain. Maxwell, though, understood that analogy and metaphor are the most intellectually responsible forms of expression when we are reaching towards theories that lie, as yet, beyond our grasp."

Santa Fe, NM

2023-05

Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online.

text

pdf

https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7751

English

SF_FisherH_Alternating_Current_2023-04-26_text

paper

24 pages