NOTES AND LITERATURE. 



PHYSICS. 



A First Course in Physics.^— These two books outline a thor- 

 oughly substantial course in elementary physics. They are obviously 

 intended to be used together, but each is complete in itself and either 

 (preferably the laboratory manual, as the authors themselves say 

 in their preface) could be used alone as the basis of a shorter course. 



The essential feature of these books is their emphasis on the necessity 

 of showing a student "the hows and whys of the physical world in 

 which he lives" as well as the "how much" to which the reaction 

 from "the superficial, descriptive physics of thirty years ago" has led 

 us. For this reason, a great number of devices which are in common 

 use are explained with the help, in many cases, of admirable diagrams 

 of actual machines; as examples w^e may mention platform scales 

 for wagons, gas meters, two kinds of hydraulic elevators, the fire 

 engine, the railroad locomotive, hydraulic and steam turbines and gas 

 engines, artificial-ice and liquid-air machines, an excellent discussion 

 of the modem methods of heating and ventilating houses, a full descrip- 

 tion not only of the instruments used in telegraphy and telephony, 

 including the carbon transmitter, but also of the circuits themselves, 

 including even the new Bell central-battery system of telephony, auto- 

 matic signals and all, three pages of musical instruments, the Zeiss 

 binocular and, of course, wireless telegraphy. In the present instance, 

 the introduction of these illustrative digressions is governed by so just a 

 sense of proportion, and they are handled so well and are hacked by 

 so much thoroughly good physics of a more <juantitativt> sort, that the 

 result is much to be commended. It should always \)v iviiunibered, 

 however,— this is to be taken not as a criticism l)ut as a warning — 

 that this sort of thing may very easily become, in the hands of authors 

 and especially of teachers less scholarly than Pr()fes>or .Millikan 

 and Dr. Gale, an unfortunate return to the old-fashioned ^uprrficial. 

 descriptive "natural philosophy" which thev themselves so dcHnitely 

 deplore. 



'Millikan, Robert Andrews and Gale. Henry Gordon. .4 First Course in 

 Physics. Boston, Ginn & Co., 1906. 8vo, viii + 488 pp. 



Millikan, R. A. and Gale H. G., A Laboratory Course in Physics, for Sec- 

 ondary Schools. Boston, Ginn & Co., 1906. 8vo, x + 134 pp. 



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