Oliver Heaviside Born: May 18, 1850 Died: February 3, 1925

Group Members Ricardo Gabaldon Julia Aragon Myrna Escajeda Renato Orpinel Quincy Gray Luis Gandara

Table of Contents Early years Education Adult Years Theories Accomplishments Sources

Early Years Heaviside was born in London, the youngest of four sons of Thomas Heaviside, an engraver and watercolorist. At an early age, Oliver caught scarlet fever and this affected his hearing. This was to have a major effect in his life making his childhood unhappy with relations between himself and other children difficult.

Education His school results were rather good and in 1865 he was placed fifth from 500 pupils. Academic subjects seemed to hold a little attraction for Heaviside however and at age 16 he left school. Perhaps he was more disillusioned with school than with learning since he continued

Education To study after leaving school, in particular he learned the Morse code, studied electricity and studied further languages in Danish and German.

Adult Years Taking advise from his uncle, Charles Wheatstone, Oliver went to become a telegrapher. He progressed quickly in his profession and took up post in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the Office of Great Northern Telegraph Company, which dealt with overseas traffic. But in 1874 he was forced to retire because of his increasing deafness.

Theories As early as 1868, Heaviside had been performing electrical experiments, and he published his first technical article in His first major contribution came in in a series of papers in the Electrician, in which he suggested his now-famous theory of surface conduction. This theory states that when a current begins in a wire, it starts at the surface and then propagates toward the center.

Theories He later published his collected work, Electrical Papers, in In this work appeared his theoretical analysis of problems relating to electrical communication including multiplex telegraphy and the induction between parallel wires. Heaviside did much work in the study of high-frequency phenomena and advanced the theory of a reflecting non- conducting layer in the upper atmosphere, known as the Heaviside layer.

Theories In mathematics, Heaviside pioneered in the working out of operational calculus, which was particular useful for the analysis of the shape of transmitted telegraphic waves, and to enable him to solve the ordinary differential equations that came out of the theory of electrical circuits. As an engineer, he revolutionized the design of telephonic and telegraphic cables with his suggestion of “inductive loading. ”

Accomplishments Heaviside’s lifetime accomplishments included: Developing and championing the ideas of vectors and vector calculus. Developing the idea that the electrical and magnetic fields were the “fundamental” entities of electromagnetic. The reduction of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetics to four vector equations.

Accomplishments The independent co-discovery that the Poynting vector, ExH, defines power flow through space. Developing transmission line theory. Theorizing correctly the existence of the ionosphere from early radio evidence. Development of the operator method of solving linear differential equations.

References Nahin J. Paul; “Oliver Heaviside: Sage in Solitude” The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., New York, Heaviside.html heaviside. txt D.Johnson, J. Johnson and J.Hilborn, Electric Circuit Analysis, Prentice-Hall, 1989.

References Encyclopedia Americana Copyright Encyclopedia Britannica Copyright National Encyclopedia Encyclopedia Copyright