Analytical Experimental Physics

Abstract

THE purpose of this book, as stated in the preface, is to provide a record of demonstration-lectures which were given to second-year students attending a general course of physical sciences at the University of Chicago. Will it fit any British syllabus? A comparison with those of the University of London will be a stage towards deciding this question. The book contains what is needed for London Intermediate Science, and much more besides. Of the twenty questions set in the London External General B.Sc. in June 1938, seven can be answered fully with the aid of this book, seven partly ; and on the remaining six it gives no guidance. The deficiencies, for this purpose, are mostly that useful general notions are not developed in sufficient quantitative detail. For examples: (i) pairs of separated, thin lenses are treated, but not by the method of principal points ; (ii) the potential energy of an electrostatic system is worked out for two conductors, but not for many ; (iii) a formula for the bending of a beam is stated without proof ; (iv) it is assumed that the gravitational attraction of the earth for all bodies near or far acts as if the mass of the earth were all f concentrated at its centre. Electromagnetic waves receive scant attention. Yet in other directions the book goes far, treating, for example, the gyroscope, the mass-spectrograph, the three-colour analysis of vision, and the triode-amplifier ; but not the triode-generator. The reviewer is left wondering to what extent syllabuses in Britain and the United States are determined by scientific or social necessity, and to what extent by academic habit.

Analytical Experimental Physics

By Prof. Harvey Brace Lemon Prof. Michael Ference, Jr. Pp. xvi + 584. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1943.)