Physical Measurements

THIS volume is another help towards the establishment of rational methods of instruction in elementary science. It is a laboratory manual of practical physics for organised science schools under the Department of Science and Art, and other secondary schools. Of the educational value of the course contained in the book, there can be no doubt; for the experiments (which are of a character suited to beginners) follow a natural order, and are such as will develop the faculties of observation, investigation, and common sense; in fact, they will lead the student to think as well as learn. The book is divided into three sections, dealing respectively with measuring and weighing, relative densities, and experimental mechanics. Experiments on these matters elucidate the fundamental principles which form the basis of a scientific education. The knowledge cannot be labelled “Sound, Light and Heat,” or “Magnetism and Electricity,” and therefore superficia critics, and syllabus-bound teachers, think it is not Physics. We are of the opinion, however, that experimental work in measuring and weighing, constitutes the foundations of physics. The student who is able to weigh and measure carefully, and to observe and think accurately, knows more of the realities of physical investigation than if he had spent a dozen years in learning scraps of information about other people's contributions to knowledge.Physical Measurements.By Frank C. Weedon. Pp. 232. (London: G. Gill and Sons, 1895.)