| RefNo | MS/603/8/169 |
| Previous numbers | 1507 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from W D [William Davidson] Niven, Royal Naval College, Greenwich, to [Joseph] Larmor |
| Creator | Niven; Sir William Davidson (1842-1917); British mathematician |
| Recipient | Larmor; Sir Joseph (1857-1942); Irish theoretical physicist |
| Date | 8 December 1896 |
| Description | The 'wretched thing of mine about capacities' will give trouble to everyone and he is sorry that Larmor has wasted a morning on it. He encloses what he had written in his rough notes about the complemetary function, the same points as are in Larmor's notes. Guessing the value of f (theta) is nonsense, and as for Larmor's way of solving this, Niven avoided it, giving his reasons. He discusses other aspects of the paper, including finding the potential at any point; he is hampered by his former paper and by [Hector] Macdonald's solution, the merits of which he has always acknowledged. The less he says on the present occasion the better. Larmor sent him a 'pretty' note about capacity and he had always meant to look at [George] Chrystal's paper in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which had something of the same kind. |
| Extent | 4p. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA6649 | Niven; Sir; William Davidson (1842 - 1917); mathematician and electrical engineer | 1842 - 1917 |