Abstract
WHILE the small edition of Thomson and Tait's “Natural Philosophy” professed to supply the essential details of this reasoning, devoid of mathematical notation, the present treatise appears to perform the converse operation, of providing the student of Physics with the mathematical argument and equations he is likely to encounter, devoid of any appeals to experiment or numerical illustration. The book is therefore a very handy manual of reference for formulas, and the mathematical treatment is very elegant and condensed, not running to unnecessary luxuriance. As it is stated at the outset that the C.G.S. system alone is employed, there is no need for any specification of the units employed; although we think it would tend to clearness to mention them occasionally; and this can be done, on the Hospitalier System, in a very condensed form, thereby training the student not to shirk this most important detail of his practical work; thus,. for instance, the number 1˙695 × 1012, representing the modulus of elasticity on p. 81, is given in dynes/cm2.
Elements of Theoretical Physics.
By Dr. C. Christiansen, Professor of Physics in the University of Copenhagen. Translated by W. F. Magie, Ph.D., Professor of Physics in Princeton University. Pp. xii + 339. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1897.)
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Elements of Theoretical Physics. Nature 56, 222 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056222b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056222b0