Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 1.djvu/52

12 The case in which the components of the flux are linear functions of those of the force is discussed in the chapter on the Equations of Conduction, Art. 296. There are in general nine coefficients which determine the relation between the force and the flux. In certain cases we have reason to believe that six of these coefficients form three pairs of equal quantities. In such cases the relation between the line of direction of the force and the normal plane of the flux is of the same kind as that between a diameter of an ellipsoid and its conjugate diametral plane. In Quaternion language, the one vector is said to be a linear and vector function of the other, and when there are three pairs of equal coefficients the function is said to be self-conjugate.

In the case of magnetic induction in iron, the flux, (the magnetization of the iron,) is not a linear function of the magnetizing force. In all cases, however, the product of the force and the flux resolved in its direction, gives a result of scientific importance, and this is always a scalar quantity.

14.] There are two mathematical operations of frequent occurrence which are appropriate to these two classes of vectors, or directed quantities.

In the case of forces, we have to take the integral along a line of the product of an element of the line, and the resolved part of the force along that element. The result of this operation is called the Line-integral of the force. It represents the work done on a body carried along the line. In certain cases in which the line-integral does not depend on the form of the line, but only on the position of its extremities, the line-integral is called the Potential.

In the case of fluxes, we have to take the integral, over a surface, of the flux through every element of the surface. The result of this operation is called the Surface-integral of the flux. It represents the quantity which passes through the surface.

There are certain surfaces across which there is no flux. If two of these surfaces intersect, their line of intersection is a line of flux. In those cases in which the flux is in the same direction as the force, lines of this kind are often called Lines of Force. It would be more correct, however, to speak of them in electrostatics and magnetics as Lines of Induction, and in electrokinematics as Lines of Flow.

15.] There is another distinction between different kinds of directed quantities, which, though very important in a physical