Abstract
THE March issue of the devotes eleven pages to a report of the meeting of the Advisory Council on Applied Physics of the American Institute of Physics held in Pittsburgh in November. The Council recommended that in the American Physical Society a Division of Applied Physics be formed under a special chairman and committee to arrange for papers on applied physics to be read and discussed and to direct the journal Physics. In the discussion on the training of physicists for industrial posts, it was pointed out that at most of the American universities the average graduate hi physics “lacks practical sense and initiative” as compared with the chemist or engineer, and “is inclined to overemphasise theory, quantum physics and atom splitting”. A demand was made that “the applied physics student should be required to study more chemistry” in order that the present belief “that it is easier to train a chemist in the physics he needs than it is to train a physicist in the chemistry he needs” may be eradicated. Like the engineer, the chemist and the metallurgist, he should have courses in the practical application of his knowledge. The Council further resolved that meetings be held to discuss the outstanding problems of each industry and that the desirability of preparing a book “Physics in Overalls” be considered.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Applied Physics. Nature 137, 811 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137811c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137811c0