Abstract
THIS useful little Volume contains a description of one hundred and two experiments in heat, suitable for an ordinary laboratory course. It is divided into fourteen chapters, each of which comprises a set of classified and numbered experiments—an arrangement which should find favour with teachers of practical physics. At the end of each chapter is given a number of additional experimental exercises, mostly selected from examination papers of the London University. The descriptions are clear and concise, and the text is amply illustrated; the more elaborate experimental corrections are avoided, so as to allow the student to obtain a firm grasp of fundamental principles. The student who conscientiously works through this course should gain fairly accurate results, and, what is more important, a good general idea of the methods of experimental research. The first two chapters are devoted to measurements of temperature, and corrections of the mercury thermometer; these are followed by chapters on the expansion of solids and liquids. It may be noted, in passing, that, in experiment 22, p. 36, on the determination of the temperature at which water acquires its maximum density, the mercury placed in the bulb for the purpose of eliminating the expansion of the latter should have a volume equal to one-seventh of the internal volume of the bulb, not, as is stated, one-seventh of the volume of the glass composing the bulb. The expansion of gases, calorimetry, and change of state are treated in subsequent chapters. Chapters are devoted to electrical methods of measuring temperature, conduction, and radiation. The last chapter is occupied by experiments relating to elementary thermodynamics, including the ratio of the specific heats of air and the value of J. It may be remarked that, though a rough determination of J may be effected by allowing lead shot to fall a number of times down a cardboard tube, and observing the rise of temperature produced, yet if mercury is substituted for the shot, as suggested on p. 155 no appreciable rise of temperature will be obtained, owing to the small viscosity of the mercury. In later editions, it is to be hoped that an account of Prof. Callendar's recently devised method of determining J will be described, since this is the only satisfactory determination which has so far been brought within the reach of the student who can spend but a limited time over an experiment.
Practical Exercises in Heat.
By E. S. A. Robson Pp. xii + 187. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 2s. 6d.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
E., E. Practical Exercises in Heat . Nature 67, 510 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/067510b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/067510b0