Re: Why "i" for current?

["L. R. Cartwright (Larry)" <physics@SCNC.CPS.K12.MI.US>]

One should also remember that a lot of scientific nomemclature and
symbolism has been the result of timing, as well as political and national
circumstances.

In 1800, when Alessandro Volta's electrochemical experiments finally made
it possible to produce a "current", the other major characters on the
stage were French (62 year old Charles Coulomb, 25 year old Andre Ampere)
and German (23 year old JKF Gauss) and Danish (Hans Christian Oersted,
also 23). Georg Ohm was 13 at the time.  The French Academy was the
continental center of electrical inquiry, and Latin was dead.  The British
Royal Society was not a serious player in the electrophysics of the day.
Michael Faraday was 9 years old, James Clerk Maxwell wasn't born until
1831.

Picking up on the 18th century work of Franklin, the new generation of
natural philosophers continued to conceptualize electricity as some manner
of fluid, flowing like a stream of water.  The term we call "current" was
first introduced in the writings of Ampere, who called it "the intensity
of the flow", "intensite' du courant" in French.  Gauss and the Germans
used terminology like "die Stromstaerke" to describe the intensity of "der
elektrische Strom", but adopted the French symbol "I".

So the symbol "I" comes from the French word "intensite'".  The word
"current" comes from the Anglicization of the French word "courant".

I have heard that some English texts used "C" for current through much of
the 19th century, perhaps to give the world yet one more expression of
their disdain for the French Academy and its metric system?

Best wishes,

Larry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Larry Cartwright
Physics, Physical Science, Internet Teacher
Charlotte High School, 378 State Street, Charlotte MI 48813
<physics@scnc.cps.k12.mi.us> or <science@scnc.cps.k12.mi.us>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Miguel A. Santos wrote:

>  Classical physics has been mostly developed, if not completly, by
> scientist who spoke English,French or German as their primary language.
>  So, altough f.i. 'Work' takes usually a 'W', and English is currently
> the language of science, in searching the ethymology of a word one cannot
> forget these other two languages.
>
>  Regards,
>         Miguel A. Santos
>         msantos@etse.urv.es