A Text-Book of Physics. Sound

Abstract

THIS volume will be welcomed by those interested in the teaching of physical science, not only on account of its individual merits, but also as the first instalment of a complete treatise on physics now in preparation by the authors. It is intended for the use of students who lay most stress on the study of the experimental part of physics, and who have not yet reached the stage at which the reading of advanced treatises on special subjects is desirable. For this class of students it is important that the mathematics used should be of the simplest. So far as concerns those who are unacquainted with the calculus, this is self-evident; it is, further, none the less true with regard to those possessing some knowledge of the higher mathematics. Unless great care is exercised, the use of the calculus is apt to become so far mechanical that the student may possibly miss many tacit assumptions which it would be advantageous for him to clearly recognise. To all students it is alike of importance that each stage in the reasoning employed should be brought into view as clearly as possible, and subjected to the most searching scrutiny. This can be done, sometimes by the use of comparatively simple analytical and geometrical devices, often by the application of the principles of the calculus developed ab initio. The volume under consideration comprises many most successful attempts to apply simple mathematical methods to the solution of important, and sometimes fairly intricate, problems. The investigation of the modes of vibration of a stretched string, on pp. 86–88, is perhaps the least successful effort in this direction; few students would, it may be feared, be able to keep the essential features of the problem clearly distinguished from the number of geometrical and analytical assumptions and approximations involved. The investigation of the same problem from another standpoint, as given on p. 93, is much to be preferred in this respect.

A Text-Book of Physics. Sound.

By J. H. Poynting J. J. Thomson Pp. x + 163. (London: Chas. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1899.)