Page:A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism - Volume 2.djvu/367



ELECTROMAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS.

730.] So many of the measurements of electrical quantities depend on observations of the motion of a vibrating body that we shall devote some attention to the nature of this motion, and the best methods of observing it.

The small oscillations of a body about a position of stable equilibrium are, in general, similar to those of a point acted on by a force varying directly as the distance from a fixed point. In the case of the vibrating bodies in our experiments there is also a resistance to the motion, depending on a variety of causes, such as the viscosity of the air, and that of the suspension fibre. In many electrical instruments there is another cause of resistance, namely, the reflex action of currents induced in conducting circuits placed near vibrating magnets. These currents are induced by the motion of the magnet, and their action on the magnet is, by the law of Lenz, invariably opposed to its motion. This is in many cases the principal part of the resistance.

A metallic circuit, called a Damper, is sometimes placed near a magnet for the express purpose of damping or deadening its vibrations. We shall therefore speak of this kind of resistance as Damping.

In the case of slow vibrations, such as can be easily observed, the whole resistance, from whatever causes it may arise, appears to be proportional to the velocity. It is only when the velocity is much greater than in the ordinary vibrations of electromagnetic instruments that we have evidence of a resistance proportional to the square of the velocity.

We have therefore to investigate the motion of a body subject to an attraction varying as the distance, and to a resistance varying as the velocity.