Newton's Laws of Motion

Abstract

HOW is the science of mechanics to be taught to medical students who have to “get up” natural philosophy in three months? If a teacher, confronted with such a problem, took refuge in sheer “cram,” his action could cause no astonishment; an attempt, such as Prof. Tait has made, to provide a solution in which cram has no place commands admiration, even if it cannot be pronounced successful. The author's method is to furnish the student with a set of perfectly recorded lecture notes, and thus leave him free to follow the lectures instead of taking notes of them. Perhaps no better method can be devised, if the substance of the lectures is as good as the record in the notes is perfect, and if the student is made to apply the ideas explained in the lectures to simple examples. The latter of these conditions is doubtless fulfilled in Prof. Tait's classes; we are concerned here with what can be made out in regard to the former. After all the books that have been written on the subject, there was still room for a pointed statement of the principles of mechanics, with sufficient detail and sufficient illustration, but short; and such a summary, if only it were precise and lucid, could not fail to be useful to a class much wider than that immediately in view; but its value would be diminished in proportion as it was marked by vague statement, inexact definition and loose argument.

Newton's Laws of Motion.

By Prof. P. G. Tait. Pp. viii + 52. (London: A. and C. Black, 1899.)