Abstract
IN response to Mr. Twyman's appeal1, may I express the hope that the term ” spectrum analysis” will continue to be used ” to denote the analysis of substances by means of their spectra”? The term is a technical one with an established meaning which a student has to learn, and it would introduce a very bad principle to change such terms whenever opportunities arise for them to be misunderstood by those who have not taken the trouble to find out what they mean. We might, for example, be asked to abandon the term solar time, because a post-relativity physicist takes it to be the time kept by an observer on the sun; or to give up speaking of stellar magnitudes now that we have learnt to measure stellar volumes.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
NATURE, 136, 609, Oct. 12, 1935.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DINGLE, H. Spectrum Analysis. Nature 136, 684–685 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136684b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136684b0
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
