Talk:Joule's laws

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:56, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

What exactly is the joule effect?
In Wikipedia's article Current density, a (grammatically very messy) sentence mentions the "joule effect". So I entered "joule effect" into Wikipedia and it redirected me to Magnetostriction. Nowhere on the Magnetostriction page does it talk about the "joule effect", so I went looking further. The Joule's laws article states, "Joule's first law, also known as the Joule effect, is a physical law expressing the relationship between the heat generated by the current flowing through a conductor." This sounds like a very different principle from Magnetostriction to me. Other sources provide similar and differing definitions: Can someone clarify how the "Joule effect" should be defined, and to what article on Wikipedia it should link? Wildbear (talk) 05:44, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Dictionary.com: Joule effect: the generation of heat by the passage of electricity through a resistance.
 * Answers.com: Joule effect: The heating effect produced by the flow of current through a resistance.
 * nasa.gov: Magnetostrictive Materials were discovered in the 1840s by James Prescott Joule, when he noticed that iron changed length in response to changes in magnetism and named the phenomenon the Joule Effect.


 * Books show at least two very different joule effects; electrical heating and one about stretched rubber bands that may be sort of related to the magnetostrictive one mentioned above. Probably we need a Joule effect article where we can talk about Joule and his eponymous effects. Dicklyon (talk) 05:50, 17 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree that a Joule effect article would be worthwhile, since it appears that the issue is complex enough that some technical and historical background on the various "Joule effects" would help to clarify the issue. If not a new article, then there should at least be a disambiguation page for  Joule effect (resistive heating), Joule effect (Magnetostriction), Joule effect (gas expansion), Joule effect (rubber contraction), and any other Joule effects that I'm overlooking at the moment.  I think an article would be preferable over disambiguation for this topic, and I'm willing to help work on it.  Wildbear (talk) 02:54, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Joule effect article created. Wildbear (talk) 08:27, 19 July 2009 (UTC)