N. Henry Black
Published: 2015-06-13
Total Pages: 571
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Excerpt from Practical Physics: Fundamental Principles and Applications to Daily Life The chief aim of the first edition of this book was to impress upon teacher and pupil alike that the study of physics is not merely an abstract mental exercise to be patiently undergone in the hope of training one's mind. It is rather a simple, straightforward attempt to understand and to use intelligently a multitude of familiar objects and devices that surround us on every hand. If rightly taught, physics should be the most popular subject in the curriculum; for no satisfaction is more complete than that which comes to a person already familiar with the fundamental principles of some branch of modern science who finds himself habitually and instinctively detecting and appreciating applications of these principles in unexpected places in the course of his daily life. It was to suggest this point of view that we chose the title Practical Physics; and the same considerations led us to direct the student's attention chiefly to the familiar objects of everyday life rather than to the subtleties of molecular physics and atomic structure. Although the latter are of the greatest importance and interest to maturer students, they are nevertheless so far outside the experience of those who are approaching the subject for the first time as to seem inevitably more like "book learning" than like real life. We have pursued the same course in the present revision. In particular we have been responsive to the fact that during the nine years since the first edition appeared, the automobile has ceased to be largely the plaything of the well-to-do, and has become the working tool of multitudes of families in city and country alike. As illustrative material for nearly every division of physics the modern automobile is especially appropriate because of this widespread familiarity on which a physics teacher can build. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.