Abstract
THE Science Exhibition arranged by a Committee of the Royal Society in the Government Pavilion at Wembley represents a great advance on the similar exhibition held last year, particularly as regards the section devoted to physics. The space available has been considerably extended and the equipment of the demonstration benches is much more adequate. Perhaps the most striking advance, however, is the admirably systematic manner in which it is now possible to present the exhibits, for these have been arranged on an underlying plan which gives unity to the whole and converts a collection of miscellaneous experiments into an orderly sequence of demonstrations, which are not only striking in themselves but also calculated to give visitors a very fair impression of the nature of modern physics and the scope of the problems to which it addresses itself. The key to this part of the exhibition is to be found in an enormous chart, some 24 ft. long, showing the wave-lengths of electromagnetic radiation as a continuous series according to a logarithmic scale, the general nature of the radiation and the methods by which it is detected and generated being shown against each range of wave-lengths. This chart itself, which covers 60 octaves, is of considerable interest, particularly as regards the regions of overlap. For example, it has in recent years become possible to generate and detect radiation the wave-length of which is a few tenths of a millimetre both by thermal and by electromagnetic methods. It is a remarkable fact that it is now possible to use a scale of wave-lengths as a guide to a very representative series of physical experiments: it emphasises the change which has taken place in the orientation of scientific thought since the days when matter was everything and energy had not been defined, for now energy is paramount and matter is mentioned as an afterthought.
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H., C. The Science Exhibition at Wembley. Nature 116, 50–52 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116050a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116050a0