Josiah Willard Gibbs was a mathematician, chemist, and physicist who developed the analysis of vector components, which was subsequently used to illustrate basic physics ideas. Willard Gibbs did not, however, make this discovery on his own. Vector analysis was created independently of Willard Gibbs by mathematician and physicist Oliver Heaviside, who was born in London. Separately and without mutual knowledge, these two would pioneer new methods for doing computations concerning both direction and quantity.
Vector analysis is a widely used technique in the solution of physical issues, particularly in the field of electromagnetism, which involves physics and deals with the interaction between particle electric charges. Vector analysis provides scientists at all levels a visual aid on the force surrounding particles and allows them to apply known and/or experimental theories and practices on particle magnetic fields and electric currents. It also allows calculations regarding both magnitude and direction. Within our presentation we expand into further detail, J. Willard Gibbs’ development of vector analysis. This included the reasons behind it, how it is used today–illustrating how vector analysis is used in electromagnetism–and an introduction to Oliver Heaviside. Even though Willard Gibbs’ contributions are our main emphasis, we believe that providing a portion on Oliver Heaviside brings the intriguing coincidences within scientific research to the attention of the audience.
