On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
Title page, 1834
AuthorMary Somerville
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectScience
GenrePopular science
PublisherJohn Murray
Media typePrint
Mary Fairfax (Mrs William Somerville)
Mary Fairfax (Mrs William Somerville)

On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, by Mary Somerville, is one of the best-selling science books of the 19th century.[1] The book went through many editions and was translated into several European languages. It is considered one of the first popular science books, containing few diagrams and very little mathematics. It describes astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, meteorology and electromagnetism as they were scientifically understood at the time.[2][3][4][5] In a review of the book in March 1834, William Whewell coined the word "scientist".[6][7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Review of On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences by Mrs. Sommerville". The Quarterly Review. 51: 54–68. March 1834.
  2. ^ "Nature Podcast". 30 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  3. ^ Holmes, Richard (2014). "In retrospect: On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences". Nature. 514 (7523): 432–433. Bibcode:2014Natur.514..432H. doi:10.1038/514432a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  4. ^ Secord, James (18 March 2014). Visions of Science: Books and readers at the dawn of the Victorian age. OUP Oxford. pp. 107–134. ISBN 9780191662751. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  5. ^ Patterson, E. C.; Eisberg, J (June 1985). "Book Review: "The Queen of Nineteenth-Century Science": Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815–1840". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 16 (2): 144–146. Bibcode:1985JHA....16..144P. doi:10.1177/002182868501600209. S2CID 126405732.
  6. ^ Ross, Sydney (1 June 1962). "Scientist: The story of a word". Annals of Science. 18 (2): 65–85. doi:10.1080/00033796200202722. ISSN 0003-3790.
  7. ^ Warner, Deborah Jean (1 March 1990). "What is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?". The British Journal for the History of Science. 23 (1): 86. doi:10.1017/S0007087400044460. ISSN 1474-001X. S2CID 145517920.

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