Synopses & Reviews
PHYSICS A Supplementary Textbook for the use of Scholarship Candidates and University Students BY G, T. R TARRANT M. A., Ph. D.. VOLUME ONE MECHANICS PROPERTIES OF MATTER LIGHT HEAT J. M, DFNT AND SONS-. LTD. BEDFORD ST. LONDON W. C. 2 PREFACE THIS book is designed for students who have already reached the Higher Certificate standard in physics and are proceeding to university scholarships or degrees. It is to be regarded rather as a supplement to existing textbooks than as an addition to their number, and takes its origin from my teaching experience at Cambridge and Manchester. Any points that students found difficult, or of which a clearer treatment than usual could be developed, were noted down and repeatedly considered with successive classes. Certain other topics that seemed to present features of special interest or importance were also recorded, and from the data thus accumulated the book gradually took shape. Although the several sections of the book are not necessarily interconnected, each section is continuous within itself and includes all that a scholarship or degree candidate is likely to want apart, of course, from such readily assimilable book work as he may easily obtain from his ordinary textbook. The whole of the matter has been carefully sifted in order that the essentials of each thesis shall not be obscured by un nec ssary accretions likely to cause confusion and it may not be amiss to remark that the book represents such treatment as I have found in practice to be of both immediate and lasting help to the student. In a further volume I hope to deal on similar lines with electricity, magnetism, and modern physics. I am grateful to the following firms for permissionto reproduce diagrams and tables Messrs. W. Edwards Co., London, for Figure 27 the Cambridge University Press for the three diagrams of Figure 31, from Experimental Elasticity by G. Fi C. Searle the Cambridge University Press and the International Commission on Illumination foj vi PREFACE tables which appear in the chapters on Colour and Messrs. Longmans, Green Co. for Figure 142, from Treatise on Light by R. A. Houstoun. I feel very greatly indebted to all my students, from whom I have learnt much, and, in particular, to the scholarship candidates at Manchester who have read and criticized the manuscript. My thanks are also due to Dr. N. Feather for his help in connection with certain difficult points, to Dr. H. Lowry for reading the manuscript of the chapter on Colour, and to my wife for much help, advice, and forbearance. G. T. P. T. CONTENTS CHAPTER I MECHANICS SECTION PAGE 1. STRAIGHT LINE AND ANGULAR MECHANICS . . . i 2. SIMPLE HARMONIC MOTION ...... 5 3. CENTRIFUGAL FORCE ....... 7 4. THE WAVE EQUATION ....... 7 5. STATIONARY WAVES. MATHEMATICAL TREATMENT . . n 6. STATIONARY WAVES. PHYSICAL TREATMENT . . .13 7. ERRORS .......... 14 8. THE COMBINATION OF ERRORS 16 9. INDEPENDENT MEASUREMENTS . . . - 17 CHAPTER II GYROSCOPES 10. THE VECTOR REPRESENTATION OF ANGULAR VELOCITIES . 18 11. THE REPRESENTATION OF ANGULAR MOMENTA . . .21 12. PRECESSION 21 13. A PRACTICAL GYROSCOPE 23 14. APPLICATIONS OF THE GYROSCOPE ..... 24 CHAPTER III PROPERTIES OF MATTER 15. GRAVITATION. THE RELATIVE ACCURACY OF THE CAVENDISH AND THE BOYS EXPERIMENT . . . . - 2 16. GRAVITATION. MODERN WORK 33 17. GRAVITATION. UNIFORM SPHERES GRAVITATE AS IF THEIR MASS WERE CONCENTRATED AT THE CENTRE ... 36 18.GRAVITATION. THE EARTH ATTRACTS OBJECTS INSIDE IT WITH A FORCE PROPORTIONAL TO THB RADIUS . . 37 vii. viu CONTENTS SECTION f. 19. GRAVITATION. TIDES 20. SURFACE TENSION. CONDENSATION INTO DROPS . . 38 21. SURFACE TENSION. CONDENSATION ON DUST PARTICLES . 40 22. SURFACE TENSION. CONDENSATION ON IONS . . 41 23. Low PRESSURE. PUMPS OF THE GERYK TYPE . 43 24. Low PRESSURE. ROTARY OIL SEALED PUMPS ... 44 25. Low PRESSURE. DIFFUSION PUMPS .... 46 26. Low PRESSURE. THE CONDUCTANCE OF TUBES AND THE SPEED OF PUMPS 49 27. Low PRESSURE. OCCLUDED GAS ..... 51 28. ELASTICITY...