584 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 774 



this work as here outlined may reasonably be 

 expected to pass. 



GENEBAL STATEMENT 



1. The unit in physics consists of at least 120 

 hours of 60 minutes each. Time spent in the 

 laboratory shall be counted at one half its face 

 value. 



2. The course of instruction in physics should 

 include : 



(o) The study of one standard text-book, for 

 tne purpose of obtaining a connected and compre- 

 hensive view of the subject. The student should 

 be given opportunity and encouragement to con- 

 sult other scientific literature. 



(6) Instruction by lecture-table demonstration 

 to be used mainly for illustration of the facts and 

 phenomena of physics in their qualitative aspects 

 and in their practical applications. 



(o) Individual laboratory work consisting of 

 experiments requiring at least the time of thirty 

 double periods. The experiments performed by 

 each student should number at least thirty. Those 

 named in the appended list are suggested as suit- 

 able. The work should be so distributed as to 

 give a wide range of observation and practise. 



The aim of the laboratory work should be to 

 supplement the pupil's fund of concrete knowl- 

 edge and to cultivate his power of accurate ob- 

 servation and clearness of thought and expres- 

 sion. The exercises should be chosen with a view 

 to furnishing forceful illustrations of fundamental 

 principles and their practical applications. They 

 should be such as to yield results capable of 

 ready interpretation, obviously in conformity 

 with theory, and free from the disguise of unin- 

 telligible units. 



Slovenly work should not be tolerated, but the 

 effort for precision should not lead to the use of 

 apparatus or processes so complicated as to ob- 

 scure the principle involved. 



3. Throughout the whole course special atten- 

 tion should be paid to the common illustrations of 

 physical laws and to their industrial applications. 



4. In the solution of numerical problems, the 

 student should be encouraged to make use of the 

 simple principles of algebra and geometry, to 

 reduce the difficulties of solution. Unnecessary 

 mathematical difficulties should be avoided and 

 care should be exercised to prevent the student's 

 losing sight of the concrete facts, in the manipula- 

 tion of symbols. 



The "appended list" of laboratory exer- 

 cises which "are suggested as suitable" 



contains fifty-one titles, mostly one-line 

 titles, without any details of method. The 

 great majority of these are practically 

 equivalent to titles found in the list, with 

 sixty-one titles, originally adopted by the 

 College Entrance Board or to combina- 

 tions* of such titles. The new titles to 

 which, apparently, nothing in the original 

 list explicitly corresponds are the follow- 

 ing: 



15. Efficiency test of some elementary machine, 

 either pulley, inclined plane or wheel and axle. 



16. Laws of the pendulum. 



17. Laws of accelerated motion (if by this is 

 meant a laboratory study by the pupils of falling 

 bodies and not the comparison of masses by accel- 

 eration-test and the action and reaction, of the 

 old list). 



23. Cooling curve through change of state (dur- 

 ing solidification). 



38. Magnifying power of a lens (if this means 

 more than is implied in the shape and size of a 

 real image formed by a lens, of the old list). 



39. Construction of model of telescope or com- 

 pound microscope. 



41. Magnetic induction (unless this is covered 

 by the telegraph sounder and key, the electric 

 motor and the dynamo, of the old list). 



45. Electrolysis (which apparently means some- 

 thing additional to the study of a single fluid 

 voltaic cell and study of a two fluid voltaic cell, 

 titles taken from the old list to the new). 



47. Resistance measured by volt-ammeter method. 



50. Study of induced currents (if this means 

 more than the dynamo, of the old list) . 



51. Power or efficiency of a small electric motor 

 ( if this means more than the electric motor of the 

 old list). 



The report in question gave also a sylla- 

 bus of "topics which are deemed funda- 

 mental and which should therefore be in- 

 cluded in every well-planned course of ele- 

 mentary physics. ' ' As this syllabus covers 

 nearly four type-written pages and seems 

 to include nearly everything that one would 

 expect to find in the table of contents of a 



*For example, where the original list had elas- 

 ticity: stretching ; elasticity: bending; elasticity: 

 ticisting, this new list has Hook's law. 



