Abstract
THE co-ordination of laboratory and class work is usually a problem of much difficulty in physics courses above intermediate standard, so that not infrequently there is little if any attempt made in this direction. The manual under notice sets out to bridge the gap between the two lines of study. It would obviously be impossible to treat both comprehensively in one volume of reasonable dimensions, and probably the most serious criticism to which the book could be subjected would be in respect of the matter omitted from it. Undoubtedly the most interesting section is that dealing with diffraction and interference effects observed with one and two slits. The essential differences between the two phenomena are clearly brought out, and Michelsons astronomical application of the latter is for once intelligibly presented and, further, strikingly illustrated by a laboratory experiment. The section on the Michelson interferometer is particularly good, as one has a right to expect from a book associated with the University of Chicago. Yet curiously enough there would appear to be no mention of the remarkable achievements of the instrument in optical testing work. The Fabry-Perot interferometer receives something less than adequate treatment; the student would probably obtain a quite erroneous idea of the relative importance of the two instruments in modern high-resolution work. The echelon spectroscope is not even mentioned, but no doubt this is because it is not usually met with in a laboratory course.
College Manual of Optics.
By Lloyd William Taylor. Pp. ix + 236. (Boston, U.S.A., and London: Ginn and Company.) 12s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
College Manual of Optics . Nature 116, 203 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116203a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116203a0