Mapping of Fields

Field theory, as contradistinct to circuit theory, is shown in this article to become increasingly important in a large number of engineering problems. In addition to the more familiar electric and magnetic fields there are temperature, mechanical stress, hydraulic flow, and other field concepts all reducible to the same mathematical basis. An outline of some of the methods employed in dealing with stationary fields is presented in this paper, conjugate functional methods and conformal representation being considered in detail, preceded by a brief consideration of experimental reproduction, graphical mapping, and mathematical solutions of field problems. This is the twelfth of a series of special articles developed under the sponsorship of the A.I.E.E. committee on education.