Abstract :
The properties of a unit length of single, straight conductor, far removed from all other circuits, are investigated to endeavor to find whether such a unit is a basic, fundamental one, on which deductions and a method of mathematical treatment could be based, as was advocated by Ampere, to supplement (not to replace) the Maxwell system based on a complete circuit, and to test the correctness of some of the postulates now in common use, based on the latter system. By several new, simple, and direct proofs based only on a few well-established and accepted relations, chiefly the internal stresses in a conductor, but excluding infinities, self-inductances, induction, and any postulates, a constant is deduced for the energy stored by a current in such a unit length, which seems to be one of the most fundamental, basic constants in electrodynamics, from which many useful deductions can be made, some of which are given. This energy of the flowing current corresponds to the m v2/2 energy of moving masses. Some of the results differ from those which have been in use; explanations are offered of the cause of these differences, and it is shown how the results may be brought into agreement, involving some changes in our previous conceptions.
