Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth

by Joe D. Burchfield

Overview

Burchfield charts the enormous impact made by Lord Kelvin's application of thermodynamic laws to the question of the earth's age and the heated debate his ideas sparked among British Victorian physicists, astronomers, geologists, and biologists.

"Anyone interested in geologic time, and that should include all geologists and a fair smattering of biologists, physicists and chemists, should make Burchfield's commendable and time-tested volume part of their personal library"—Brent Darymple, Quartely Review of Biology

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226080260
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	05/11/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	278
File size:	589 KB

Table of Contents

Preface

I. Introduction

Historical Background

Measuring the Age of the Earth

References

II. Kelvin and the Physics of Time

Preliminary Speculations

Time and Thermodynamics

The Later Arguments

The Age of the Earth and the Laws of Nature

References

III. Kelvin's Influence: The Initial Reception

Converts and Opponents

Kelvin, Darwin, and Wallace

The Kelvin-Huxley Debate

References

IV. The Triumph of Limited Time

Geology and the Measurement of Time

Physics and the Limitation of Time

References

V. Opposition and Controversy

Growing Discontent

The Challenge

The Loyal Opposition

A Biological Postscript

References

VI. Radioactivity and the Age of the Earth

Kelvin Overthrown: Radioactive Heating

Radioactive Dating

Geological Reaction

The Expansion of the Time Scale

The Report of the National Research Council

References

VII. Conclusion

Afterword

Bibliography

Index