Einleitung in die Theoretische Physik

Abstract

THIS work is intended to give an account of the mathematical processes employed in physical investigations. It is divided into chapters dealing with the various branches of physics, mechanics, gravitation, magnetism, electricity, solids, fluids, gases, light, and heat. It is very difficult in such a book to decide how far to go in mathematical processes, and Herr von Lange has exercised his discretion wisely in this matter. At the other limit of how little to assume known he has certainly not erred in the direction of assuming too much, for he introduces proofs of simple differentiations and integrations when he requires them, which had much better be learnt continuously in an elementary treatise on the calculus. No English student would use a book of this advanced character without some preliminary mathematical training, and it is very doubtful whether anybody picking up the calculus in this haphazard fashion could ever use it in his own investigations; and if it is no use to him for this, would it not be a great saving of time and energy for him to depend on the investigations of others without going through all their work, just as an investigator of magnetic declination need hardly expect to have time to work through the lunar and planetary theories that help in the calculations of the Nautical Almanac he uses? A work of this kind is of great service as a concentrated store of information for those who want to study physics, and who have sufficient mathematical ability and training to be able to use the mathematical processes involved; but it cannot successfully compete with special treatises on the elements of solid geometry, differential calculus, &c, as a means of supplying the mathematical training required in order to use these processes.

Einleitung in die Theoretische Physik.

Von Victor von Lange. Second Edition, Enlarged and Revised. (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1891.)