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History and present state of the art of geophysics in Hungary
- Source: First Break, Volume 3, Issue 5, May 1985,
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- 01 May 1985
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Abstract
In Hungary the history of geophysics starts with Loránd Eötvös, born in 1848. After graduating in physics and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg he became a lecturer and later professor of physics at the University of Budapest. Having first studied capillarity Eötvös then turned his attention to gravitation and magnetism. From then onwards for nearly forty years until his death in 1919, he was concerned with these two fields. In his research on the spatial changes in gravitation, he used a special version of Coulomb's torsion balance. He built two different types of torsion balance for carrying out his gravitational investigations: in the first type the masses were at the same level (curvature variometer); in the second type (horizontal variometer, known as the Eötvös torsion balance) the masses were at different levels. The horizontal variometer gives the 'gradient' of gravity which is defined as the rate of change of gravity over a horizontal distance of 1 cm. Eötvös carried out his first field measurements on Ság Hill in Transdanubia in 1891.