The necessary relations among these forces have been investigated by mathematicians; and it has been shown that the most general type of a stress consists of a combination of three principal pressures or tensions, in directions at right angles to each other.
When two of the principal pressures are equal, the third becomes an axis of symmetry, either of greatest or least pressure, the pressures at right angles to this axis being all equal.
When the three principal pressures are equal, the pressure is equal in every direction, and there results a stress having no determinate axis of direction, of which we have an example in simple hydrostatic pressure.
The general type of a stress is not suitable as a representation of a magnetic force, because a line of magnetic force has direction and intensity, but has no third quality indicating any difference between the sides of the line, which would be analogous to that observed in the case of polarized light[1].
We must therefore represent the magnetic force at a point by a stress having a single axis of greatest or least pressure, and all the pressures at right angles to this axis equal. It may be objected that it is inconsistent to represent a line of force, which is essentially dipolar, by an axis of stress, which is necessarily isotropic; but we know that every phenomenon of action and reaction is isotropic in its results, because the effects of the force on the bodies between which it acts are equal and opposite, while the nature and origin of the force may be dipolar, as in the attraction between a north and a south pole.
Let us next consider the mechanical effect of a state of stress symmetrical about an axis. We may resolve it, in all eases, into a simple hydrostatic pressure, combined with a simple pressure or tension along the axis. When the axis is that of greatest pressure, the force along the axis will be a pressure. When the axis is that of least pressure, the force along the axis will be a tension.
If we observe the lines of force between two magnets, as indicated by iron filings, we shall see that whenever the lines of force pass from one pole to another, there is attraction between those poles; and where the lines of force from the poles avoid each other and are dispersed into space, the poles repel each other, so that in both cases they are drawn in the direction of the resultant of the lines of force.
It appears therefore that the stress in the axis of a line of magnetic force is a tension, like that of a rope.
If we calculate the lines of force in the neighbourhood of two gravitating bodies, we shall find them the same in direction as
- ↑ See Faraday's 'Researches,' 3252.
