Elements of Physics

THE aim of the writers has been to present an account of physics suitable for secondary schools. With this aim in view, they have avoided everything of a purely academic character—with the exception of “little bits of history” which they make a point of inserting. The book is of a very elementary character, and is almost completely free from any mathematics except the simplest arithmetic. More attention is paid to a delivery of the facts with which a pupil is expected to be acquainted than with formal proofs of the relations between them. The authors' methods may be indicated by the constant recurrence of the two phrases “it is evident” and “just as.” The latter phrase shows the reliance placed on the method of analogy; the former phrase sometimes means it is easily proved by simple experiments—and suitable experiments are then described; sometimes it appears to be used merely to help over a difficult point. Great emphasis is laid on a pupil learning a thing by observation, and this is as it should be. An adequate course of introductory experiments is given in the “Manual.”Elements of Physics.By Ernest J. Andrews H. N. Howland; to which is added a Manual of Experiments. Pp. xi + 386 + 53. (New York: The Macmill.an Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1903.) Price 6s.