Exercises in Practical Physics

Abstract

IT is some twenty-five years since the first edition of this book was reviewed in these columns. In several subsequent editions, including the present one, it has undergone some revision, chiefly necessitated by the steadily rising standard of the courses for which it was intended. It is a long life for any physics text-book, and such longevity is in itself the most eloquent of tributes to its many merits. Yet there may be some who will find lingering about it a suggestion of an old-world atmosphere, as it were, which a modern inter polation or two (the thermionic valve, for example) merely emphasises instead of dispelling. Still, it is difficult to support such an accusation—if it be an accusation—by specific instances. What is indisputable, on the other hand, is the admirable soundness and thoroughness which characterise the book through out. Of particular value is its insistence on the consideration of order of accuracy of measurements and results, for this is an aspect of laboratory instruction which is apt to suffer nowadays from the congested condition of practical syllabuses. Students who work conscientiously through this book, even without assistance from a teacher, will have laid a very secure foundation for more advanced experimental work in physics.

Exercises in Practical Physics.

By Sir Arthur Schuster Prof. C. H. Lees. Fifth edition, revised. Pp. ix + 373. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1925.) 12s. 6d. net.