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The Kelvin equation describes the change in vapour pressure due to a curved liquid–vapor interface, such as the surface of a droplet. The vapor pressure at a convex curved surface is higher than that at a flat surface. The Kelvin equation is dependent upon thermodynamic principles and does not allude to special properties of materials.
The first tide predicting machine (TPM) was built in 1872 by the Légé Engineering Company. [11] A model of it was exhibited at the British Association meeting in 1873 [12] (for computing 8 tidal components), followed in 1875-76 by a machine on a slightly larger scale (for computing 10 tidal components), was designed by Sir William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin). [13]
Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in Lord Kelvin's honour. While the existence of a coldest possible temperature, absolute zero , was known before his work, Kelvin determined its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit . [ 13 ]
One of the earliest practical uses of Thomson's concepts was a tide-predicting machine built by Kelvin starting in 1872–3. On Lord Kelvin's advice, Thomson's integrating machine was later incorporated into a fire-control system for naval gunnery being developed by Arthur Pollen, resulting in an electrically driven, mechanical analogue ...
This arrangement makes a physical analog of just one term in the tide equation. Old Brass Brains computes 37 such terms. The slotted yoke cranks at the top and bottom (with the triangular pieces) move vertically in a sinusoidal pattern. The locations of their pins determine their amplitudes and phases, representing factors in the tide equation.
Cable theory in computational neuroscience has roots leading back to the 1850s, when Professor William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin) began developing mathematical models of signal decay in submarine (underwater) telegraphic cables. The models resembled the partial differential equations used by Fourier to describe heat conduction in a wire.
Between 1870 and 1890 the vortex atom theory, which hypothesised that an atom was a vortex in the aether, was popular among British physicists and mathematicians. William Thomson, who became better known as Lord Kelvin, first conjectured that atoms might be vortices in the aether that pervades space.
This result — singled out by Einstein in "Zum hundertjährigen Gedenktag von Lord Kelvins Geburt, Naturwissenschaften, 12 (1924), 601–602," (title translation: "On the 100th Anniversary of Lord Kelvin's Birth"), as one of the most significant results of Kelvin's work provided an early link between fluid dynamics and topology.