Excerpt from Mechanics, Molecular Physics and Heat: A Twelve Weeks' College Course This book is neither a laboratory manual in the ordinary sense of the term, nor yet is it Simply a class-room text. It is intended to take the place of both. It represents the first portion of a college course in General Physics in which the primary object has been to establish an immediate and vital connection between theory and experiment. Of course such connection always exists in the mind of the teacher; but the use in class-room and laboratory of separate texts, separate courses, and separate instructors is on the whole unfavorable to making it clear to the student. The stu dent who takes an experimental course which is out of imme diate connection with class-room discussion, who is provided in the laboratory with an isolated set of directions, or with a labora tory manual which is essentially a compendium of directions for all conceivable experiments, may perhaps in some cases obtain, with the aid of references to text-books, a comprehensive grasp of the theory and bearings of his experiment; but it is safe to say that in a great majority of cases he does not do so. The most serious criticism which can be urged against modern laboratory work in Physics is that it often degenerates into a servile following of directions, and thus loses all save a purely manipulative value. Important as is dexterity in the handling and adjustment of apparatus, it can not be too strongly emphasized that it is grasp of principles, not skill in manipulation which should be the primary object of General Physics courses. Furthermore, an intimate connection between lecture and laboratory work is no less important from the standpoint of the former than of the latter. Without the fixing power of laboratory applications, a thorough grasp of physical principles is seldom, or never, gained. This is particularly true in Mechanics, the most fundamental of all the branches of Physics, for it is only through it that the door is opened to insight into the theories of Heat, Sound, Light, and Electricity. 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.