Abstract
So many books have been written having titles similar to if not identical with that quoted above, the only object of which seems to have been to enable students to pass certain examinations with the minimum of knowledge, that it is a comfort to turn to one against which no such charge can be made. Mr. Jones's “Examples in Physics” has not been written “up to” any Syllabus, but the author has made use of portions of the manuscript in teaching classes of students taking the intermediate science and preliminary scientific courses of the London University, and he believes it will be found useful for students who are preparing for these examinations. There can be no doubt that the book will be of great assistance in this way, owing to the large number of examples and the excellent way in which they have been graduated. In addition to the examples, of which there are more than a thousand, with occasional hints for their solution, there are short explanatory chapters and paragraphs where experience has shown that they are needed. Thus, at the beginning, the C.G.S. units are thoroughly explained, as is the method of passing from one system of units to another by means of dimensional equations. Those approximate relations which are most often made use of are shown to be true, and examples illustrating the advantage of employing them are worked out. The method of using logarithms is explained, and both on pp. 19 and 21 the reader is told that there is a table of four-place logarithms at the end of the book. There is a page on which natural sines and tangents are given to three places, but not a vestige of a logarithm is to be found.
Examples in Physics.
By D. E. Jones, Lecturer in Physics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. (London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1888.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 39, 29 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/039029a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039029a0