792 



NA TURE 



[December 9, 1922 



The Teaching of Physics to Engineering 

 Students. 



"THE American Physical Society recently set up 

 * a committee to consider and report on special 

 problems and difficulties in the teaching of physics, 

 and the first report issued by the committee, prepared 

 by Prof. A. W. Duff of the Worcester Polytechnic, 

 Mass., deals with the teaching of physics to students 

 of engineering, ft summarises the opinions expressed 

 bv a large number of teachers and engineers in replies 

 to a long list of questions addressed to them by 

 the committee. All agree that the object of a 

 physics course is to provide the student with a sound 

 knowledge of the fundamental principles on which 

 engineering depends, and that he should be shown 

 how these principles find their application in common 

 experiences of everyday life, so that at a later stage 

 his knowledge of principles should be in a form 

 immediately available for the solution of new practical 

 problems. He must acquire the habit of searching 

 for the principles underlying a 'mass of phenomena 

 and of drawing safe conclusions from those principles. 

 Lectures should be well thought out and the matter 

 presented in clear form. 



Some teachers think the class should be required to 

 prepare sections of the text-book for repetition or 

 for discussion in class, although this is felt by many 

 to be a school method not desirable in engineering 

 colleges. The problems set for exercise should be of 

 a practical nature and not deteriorate into numerical 

 substitution in a formula. Laboratory work is 

 essential, but too great a degree of precision of'results 

 should not be demanded, the object of the work being 

 to elucidate principles rather than attain a high order 

 of accuracy. The relative importance of the objects 

 to be attained in teaching physics to engineers is 

 considered to be — first, the scientific habit of thought ; 

 second, knowledge of the laws of physics ; third, 

 initiative and ingenuity ; fourth, knowledge of facts 

 and methods; and, fifth, an urate observation. 



The evidence as to present teaching in America 

 shows that physics gets the proper proportion of 

 time only in the best engineering colleges, and that 

 in all cases it suffers from the inability to reason 

 logically which most boys display on leaving school. 

 The diversity of symbols used for the same quantity 

 by different writers, and the difference between the 

 engineering and scientific units, are two further 

 dime ulties under which the subject labours. A great 

 majority of the teachers and engineers consulted were 

 in favour of establishing a journal dealing with new 

 instruments, methods and experiments, recent re- 

 search, applications of physics, and the theory of 

 teaching. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Belfast. — Dr. R. C. Gray, a graduate of the 

 University of Glasgow, has been appointed lecturer 

 in physics in the Queen's University. 



Cambridge. — It is proposed to create a University 

 lectureship in crystallography for Mr. A. Hutchinson, 

 Pembroke College. 



A revised report on draft ordinances for the admis- 

 sion of women to the titles of degrees has been 

 presented by the Syndicate appointed to prepare 

 them. The chief modifications proposed are (i) that 

 research students shall be supernumerary to the limit 

 of 500 imposed on the number of women students 

 receiving instruction in the University ; (2) that a 

 woman candidate for honours, who fails to qualify 



for an honours degree and is " allowed the Ordinary " 

 shall be qualified for the title of a degree ; (3) that 

 women students be allowed to enter for pass examina- 

 tions in agriculture or in architecture so long as there 

 are no Tripos examinations in these subjects. The 

 scale of fees has been revised in view of criticisms 

 raised at the discussion on the first report. The 

 Syndicate makes it clear that it is not proposed to 

 introduce a Regulation formally admitting women to 

 instruction in the University. It is preferred to assume 

 that the present practice of admitting women will be 

 continued. 



Leeds. — Applications are invited for the professor- 

 ship of chemistry shortly to be vacant by the resigna- 

 tion of Prof. Smithells. The salary is to be 1200/. 

 per annum, and the appointment will take effect on 

 October 1, 1923. Applications for the post are to be 

 sent to the Registrar, who will supply further in- 

 formation if desired. 



London. — An assistant lecturer in Physical 

 Chemistry is required at University College, at a 

 yearly salary of 300/. Physicists possessing a know- 

 ledge of chemistry, as well as chemists, are eligible 

 for the post. Applications, accompanied by testi- 

 monials, record of degrees, published work, and 

 teaching experience (if any), must reach the Secretary 

 of the College by, at latest, Wednesday, December 20. 



According to a report prepared during the month 

 of August for the League of Nations on " The condi- 

 tion of intellectual life in Austria," the professional 

 classes and all who depend for their livelihood on 

 intellectual work have, since the revolution of 1918, 

 sunk into a position in which thev form, in an econ- 

 omic sense, the lowest stratum of the community, 

 their work being invariably worse paid than manual 

 labour. Their physical and mental powers are con- 

 sequently being sapped by insufficiency of food, and 

 their numbers are being reduced by actual starva- 

 tion. Among the organisations whereby they are 

 striving to protect their common interests is a Central 

 Council of Austrian Intellectual Workers, having its 

 seal at the University of Vienna, and associated with 

 this is an " office for providing books and instru- 

 ments." This body is endeavouring to establish 

 agreements with associations in other countries where- 

 by second-hand or surplus books and periodicals may 

 be obtained under conditions ensuring their fullest 

 possible utilisation and providing for the determina- 

 tion of the value of Austrian books offered in ex- 

 change. One such agreement has been concluded 

 with the Universities Library and Student Relief for 

 Europe affiliated to the Universities Committee, Im- 

 perial War Relief Fund, General Buildings, Aldwych, 

 W.C.2. Through this committee the universities of 

 the United Kingdom have, during the past two years, 

 contributed substantially towards relieving the neces- 

 sities of professors and students of Austrian as well 

 as other European universities. It is now urgently 

 soliciting further help in money or in kind. 



The setting-up in 1918 of the standing committee 

 of Vice-Chancellors and Principals was one of the 

 most noteworthy events in the long history of the 

 universities of the United Kingdom. Up to that 

 date each university had been a law unto itself, 

 formulating its own policy and drafting its own 

 ordinances with little regard for the needs or the 

 doings of the others, save in a few matters which 

 could only be handled by the universities collectively, 

 such, for example, as an appeal to the Chancellor 



NO. 2771, VOL. I io] 



