Abstract
THIS is a text-book, of about intermediate standard, in which physical principles are illustrated more fully than usual by examples from everyday life. The author claims that he has tried to encourage the student to think for himself, and to this end has used the device of mentioning phenomena without explaining them. It is doubtful whether this device is successful. For example, the problem of a ping-pong ball supported on a jet of air (p. 135) is not one that the student should be expected to work out for himself ; nor is that of the concentration of the scattering by a diffraction grating into one particular order (p. 353). Topics such as these are best omitted completely in an intermediate text-book.
Physics
For Students of Science and Engineering. By Asst. Prof. William H. Michener. Pp. x+646. (New York : John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1947.) 25s. 6d. net.
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Physics. Nature 162, 717 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162717a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162717a0