''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' was an 1867

text book A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote wi ...

, published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. The ''Treatise'' was often referred to as

T

and ''

T^1

'', as explained by

Alexander Macfarlane Alexander Macfarlane FRSE LLD (21 April 1851 – 28 August 1913) was a Scottish logician, physicist, and mathematician. Life Macfarlane was born in Blairgowrie, Scotland, to Daniel MacFarlane (Shoemaker, Blairgowire) and Ann Small. He s ...

:A. Macfarlane (1917
Lectures on Ten British Physicist of the Nineteenth Century
link form

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. :Maxwell had facetiously referred to Thomson as

T

and Tait as

T^1

. Hence the ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' came to be commonly referred to as

T

''and

T^1

'' in conversation with mathematicians.

Reception

The first volume was received by an enthusiastic review in Saturday Review: :The grand result of all concurrent research in modern times has been to confirm what was but perhaps a dream of genius, or an instinct of the keen Greek intellect, that all the operations of nature are rooted and grounded in number and figure. The Treatise was also reviewed as ''Elements of Natural Philosophy'' (1873). Thomson & Tait's ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' was reviewed by J. C. Maxwell in

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

of 3 July 1879 indicating the importance given to

kinematics Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause them to move. Kinematics, as a fiel ...

: "The guiding idea … is that geometry itself is part of the science of motion." In 1892

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English mathematician and biostatistician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university st ...

noted that

T

and ''

T^1

'' perpetuated a "subjectivity of force" that originated with Newton. In 1902

ascribed much of the inspiration of the book to

William Rankine William John Macquorn Rankine (; 5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mechanical engineer who also contributed to civil engineering, physics and mathematics. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson ( ...

's 1865 paper "Outlines of the Science of Energetics": :The main object of Thomson and Tait's ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' was to fill up Rankine's outlines, — expound all branches of physics from the standpoint of the doctrine of

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

. The plan contemplated four volumes; the printing of the first volume began in 1862 and was completed in 1867. The other three volumes never appeared. When a second edition was called for, the matter of the first volume was increased by a number of appendices and appeared as two separately bound parts. The volume which did appear, although judged rather difficult reading even by accomplished mathematicians, has achieved great success. It has been translated in French and German; it has educated the new generation of mathematical physicists; and it has been styled the "Principia" of the nineteenth century.Schopenhauer, H (1851) "ON AUTHORSHIP AND STYLE" Parerga and Paralipomena

References

External links

Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867)
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.
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1879)
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Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1879)
at

{{Authority control 1867 books Physics books Historical physics publications Treatises