A Text-Book of Practical Physics

Abstract

THE distrust which the “practical man” feels for science is well known, and it must be confessed that he is by no means alone to blame for his attitude in the matter. The fault lies to some extent with the teacher of science, who too often lays undue stress on the theoryt and, if an experiment which is supposed to illustrate the theory does so but indifferently, the student is apt to get the impression that theory and fact are somewhat distantly related. For example, a student who, having been rashly told that Atwood's machine is-used for measuring “g,” finds by careful experiment that the value obtained differs more or less widely from that given in text-books, generally concludes that the experiment is “wrong.” He rarely has sufficient confidence in his work to know that the experiment cannot be wrong, and that it is the theory which is at fault. Of course, the trouble lies in an insufficient realisation of the assumptions made in the theory. If the experiment does not agree with theory, the student should be taught to find the cause of the discrepancy and to estimate the degree of concordance which the limitations of the theory and the accuracy of his measurements may lead him to expect. It is of the utmost importance that such discrepancies should not be passed over; and in a book like that before us, in which theory and experiment are brought together, the valuable introductory note on the accuracy of observations might with advantage have been amplified.

A Text-Book of Practical Physics.

By Dr. H. S. Allen H. Moore. Pp. xv + 622. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 8s. 6d. net.