Intermediate physics / by W. Watson.

  • Watson, W. (William), 1868-1919.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Intermediate physics / by W. Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    PREFACE When arranging a course of instruction for intermediate students, most of whom will not proceed with the study of Physics beyond this stage, one is met with the difficulty that the range of subjects which may be dealt with is so great. This difficulty is continually increasing since the applications of physical principles to engineering and the like are con- tinually being extended, as for example in the case of wireless-telegraphy, and at the same time new branches of Physics, such as radio-activity, are being developed. In either case the student rightly expects that even in an intermediate course such subjects should not be ignored. The result of such extensions is that the teacher has either to attempt to cover all the ground, and hence owing to limitations of time can only deal very superficially with the various subjects, or he has to limit the number of subjects which he will consider. The author believes that this latter alternative is the better one, and that a considerable number of the simpler physical phenomena which it has been usual to include in an intermediate course can with advantage be omitted, or at any rate dealt with very briefly; the time thus saved being employed in examining a little more in detail some of the other branches. In this book he has attempted to carry out this idea, so that although it will be found that the number of physical phenomena considered is not quite as large as is often the case in works of a similar scope, yet some branches are carried a little beyond what is generally considered the intermediate stage. In selecting the parts to be extended in this way the author has had in view the requirements of engineering, medical and other students, who will, to a certain extent, have to apply physical principles in their subsequent studies. He feels that in this way the gap which at present is apt to exist between the course in Physics taken, say, by an engineering student, and the applications of physical principles he meets with in his engineering reading will be reduced, and at the same time the interest of the student will be better maintained than when he is introduced to a large mass of physical phenomena which, when only examined in a very elementary manner, must appear more or less disconnected. The pages on mechanics do not profess to give a complete account of the subject, only those problems being included which are required when dealing with the more physical problems considered in the main part of the book.