Abstract
THE sub-title of this book describes the contents as “an outline of the methods used for determining the meaning and value of quantitative observations and experiments in physics and chemistry, and for reducing the results obtained.” It is very important that students of science should be logical in their arguments and sound in their conclusions; and Mr. Lupton's concise description of the methods which must be followed before a scientific law or any general proposition can be established conduce to this end. The opening chapters of the book remind us of Huxley's inspiring little “Introductory” Science Primer. After these more or less metaphysical, but distinctly serviceable, statements as to ideas, premisses, and laws, come short chapters on units, averages, interpolation, the law of error, the method of least squares, the expression of results by graphical and by empirical methods, and many other subjects of interest to all who are engaged in quantitative physical and chemical experimentation. The treatment is but brief in most cases, and questions involving higher mathematics are not introduced. Sufficient is said, however, to show students how to apply to his own results the methods described; and for those who desire to go into the subjects more thoroughly, a list of references to standard works is appended to each chapter.
Notes on Observations.
By Sydney Lupton Pp. ix + 124. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1898.)
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Notes on Observations. Nature 58, 7 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058007a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058007a0