Foundations of Geomagnetism

The study of the magnetic field of the Earth, or geomagnetism, is one of the oldest lines of scientific enquiry. Indeed, it has often been said that William Gilbert's De Magnete, published in 1600 and predating Isaac Newton's Principia by 87 years, can claim to be the first true scientific textbook; his study was essentially the first of academic rather than practical interest. What then, we may ask, has been accomplished in the nearly 400 intervening years up to the publication of Foundations of Geomagnetism ? In short, a wealth of observational evidence, considerable physical understanding, and a great deal of mathematical apparatus have accrued, placing the subject on a much surer footing.The latter two categories are described in considerable detail, and with attendant rigor, in this book. The sphericity of the Earth means that a frequent theme in the book is the solution of the partial differential equations of electrodynamics in a spherical geometry.