An Elementary Course in Practical Physics Classic Reprint

Excerpt from An Elementary Course in Practical Physics

The older method of giving statistical information on science subjects was very unsatisfactory, alike to teacher and to student, and is now being replaced by a better system, in which the student, instead of seeing an experiment performed by the practised hand of a teacher, is furnished with the necessary apparatus, and with information sufficient to enable him to carry it out with some approach to accuracy.

In this manner, instead of attempting the hopeless task of remembering a law, often expressed in language which he cannot understand, he finds from careful experiments, and by the liberal use of squared paper, that such a law exists - he can even trace it in a rough experiment (and the apparatus which is sometimes given to students is as rough as it is possible to make it) but with care and proper precautions he is able to obtain either an accurate result, or at least a good approximation to it. Having proceeded so far, there is, at any rate, some incentive to induce him to try to understand more clearly what the law implies, and it thus becomes of vital interest and importance, instead of a mere jargon of words to be carefully remembered for examination purposes.

As will be seen on reference to the following pages, the attempt is made to include only those experiments which are well within the capabilities of first and second year students in science schools and classes.

The grouping together of one or more sections of each subject into chapters affords an opportunity of giving at the end of each a short recapitulatory summary, and, in addition, numerical exercises on the subject-matter. These are chiefly selected from the examina tion papers of the Science and Art Department. Solutions to these are given where necessary, and the answers to the remainder.

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