1IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP, 1 rue Jussieu, 75238 Paris cedex 05 ; Université Paris Diderot, Bât. Lamarck A case postale 7011, 75205 Paris CEDEX 13 - France)
Abstract : We describe two experiments made by the 18th-century physicists Francis Hauksbee and Pieter van Musschenbroek, designed to find the dependence of the magnetic force on distance. From the experimental results, given in the form of tables, the authors did not infer any simple law. We calculated the values obtained by assuming that the force varies as the inverse square of the distance and found a good agreement with their results. It therefore appears that these remarkable experiments could have provided an experimental proof of the law.
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03581791 Contributor : Nathalie PothierConnect in order to contact the contributor Submitted on : Sunday, February 20, 2022 - 3:35:34 PM Last modification on : Monday, March 28, 2022 - 9:38:49 AM
Mickaël Mussard, Jean-Louis Le Mouël, Jean-Paul Poirier. On some early attempts to determine the variation of the magnetic force with distance. Comptes Rendus Géoscience, Elsevier, 2013, 345, pp.225-229. ⟨10.1016/j.crte.2013.05.004⟩. ⟨insu-03581791⟩