Abstract
THE best foundation upon which a student of science can build is elementary physics, for the necessity of accurate observation and correct reasoning is impressed upon him from the very beginning. Mere book-work has no value in training the mind in this direction: lectures illustrated with experiments may lead to the desired end if the teacher take care, that the inferences to be drawn from the experimentation are quite clear; but best of all methods, by far, is to let the student perform the experiments himself, to mark the result, and then reason out the explanation. The advantages to be derived from such practical work are incalculable, yet the small number of physical laboratories in our schools and colleges at the present time shows that its importance has not been fully recognised. There are, however, signs of improvement. Judging from the increasing number of books dealing more or less with practical physics, interest in that subject is developing. Mr. Glazebrook's two volumes, that on “Heat,” recently noticed in these columns, and the one now before us, help to extend the practical method of teaching. Believing with most scientific educationalists that courses of practical instruction are necessary to the proper understanding of fundamental principles, Mr. Glazebrook gives, in the volume under review, clear descriptions of experiments, the explanations of the theory underlying the work, and the deductions to be made from the results. The theoretical portion of the book could very well form the subject of short lectures preceding the laboratory work, in which the principles expounded at such times could be experimentally tested. The book abounds with diagrams of the kind that appertain to treatises on light. To the artistic mind these figures lack beauty, but they possess the qualification of clearness; and that is sufficient to commend them to the student of optics. Teachers who require a book on light, suitable for the class-room and the laboratory, would do well to adopt Mr. Glazebrook's work.
Light: an Elementary Text-book, Theoretical and Practical, for Colleges and Schools.
By R. T. Glazebrook (Cambridge: University Press, 1894.)
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Our Book Shelf. Nature 49, 432 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049432a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049432a0