CHAPTER I 

 THE MEANING OF SCIENCE 



Most of us have read the story of Aladdin, the boy 

 who had the magic lamp. When he was hungry, he had 

 merely to rub the lamp and a genie appeared, who brought 

 him whatever food he wished. If he wanted a new castle, 

 he rubbed the lamp and lo! the genie brought the castle 

 and set it down wherever the boy desired. 



A wonderful story? Yes, but more wonderful things 

 have really happened. Man was once helpless and alone 

 in a savage world. Powerful beasts hunted him and he 

 fled to the trees in terror. At night he shivered from the 

 cold. The oceans, lakes and rivers checked his travels, 

 for he had no means to cross them. What he could not 

 do by his own strength remained undone. Then man 

 found his genie, a giant by the name of Science. 



Today, aided by this giant slave, man can do feats more 

 wonderful than those of Aladdin and his genie. He can 

 turn on his radio and draw out of the air the music of a 

 band playing thousands of miles away. He can step into 

 an airplane and travel farther in an hour than he once 

 could in a week. He can pull a lever on a derrick and 

 hoist a weight of fifty tons. He can travel through the 

 sky, or far beneath the waves. All this he owes to his 

 great slave Science. Who is this giant, Science? 



There are few wants today that Science cannot satisfy. We 

 enjoy remarkable pleasures and comforts. We move at will on 

 land and sea, and in the air. We use enormous power with 

 hardly a thought. Yet to live understandingly, we need to know 

 something of the materials and of the forces at work in the world. 

 A study of General Science opens the door through which we see 

 the importance of the familiar and common things about us. 



Suppose we were taken unexpectedly from the civilized world 

 in which we live and were set down in a wilderness without any 

 of the man-made objects which are now so much a part of our 

 daily lives. Imagine how uncomfortable and helpless we would 



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