The Zero of Potential of the Electrical Field Produced by the Heart Beat: The Problem with Reference to the Living Human Subject

The zero of potential of the electrical field produced by the heart beat is defined and measured as the average value over the surface of a large spherical, integrating electrode which contains the subject and a homogeneous conducting medium. The Zero of potential thus defined is apparently free of assumptions of any kind and is used to evaluate the error on the three-branch and the four-branch central terminal with equal resistances. The latter may, in certain instances, be brought to zero by using unequal resistances. The potential function at its electrodes is that of an unweighted resultant vector or a point dipole. The electrodes which contribute to its potential are remote.