Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4057664594112

Table of Contents

       THE FORMS OF LIQUIDS.

       THE FIBRES OF CORTI.

       ON THE CAUSES OF HARMONY.

       THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT.

       WHY HAS MAN TWO EYES?

       ON SYMMETRY.

       ON THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ELECTROSTATICS. [26]

       ON THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. [39]

       I. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE EXCLUDED PERPETUAL MOTION.

       II. MECHANICAL PHYSICS.

       III. THE PRINCIPLE OF ENERGY IN PHYSICS.

       IV. THE CONCEPTIONS OF HEAT.

       V. THE CONFORMITY IN THE DEPORTMENT OF THE ENERGIES.

       VI. THE DIFFERENCES OF THE ENERGIES AND THE LIMITS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF ENERGY.

       VII. THE SOURCES OF THE PRINCIPLE OF ENERGY.

       THE ECONOMICAL NATURE OF PHYSICAL INQUIRY. [60]

       ON TRANSFORMATION AND ADAPTATION IN SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. [69]

       ON THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPARISON IN PHYSICS. [80]

       THE PART PLAYED BY ACCIDENT IN INVENTION AND DISCOVERY. [81]

       ON SENSATIONS OF ORIENTATION. [93]

       ON SOME PHENOMENA ATTENDING THE FLIGHT OF PROJECTILES. [110]

       ON INSTRUCTION IN THE CLASSICS AND THE SCIENCES. [113]

       APPENDIX.

       A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF ACOUSTICS. [134]

       REMARKS ON THE THEORY OF SPATIAL VISION. [147]

       INDEX.

       THE SCIENCE OF MECHANICS.

       PRESS NOTICES.

       TESTIMONIALS OF PROMINENT EDUCATORS.

       POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES.

       TITLES OF THE LECTURES.

       PRESS NOTICES.

       THE ANALYSIS OF THE SENSATIONS

       CONTENTS.

       CATALOGUE OF PUBLICATIONS

       The Religion of Science Library.

       THE OPEN COURT

       THE MONIST

THE FORMS OF LIQUIDS.

       Table of Contents

      What thinkest thou, dear Euthyphron, that the holy is, and the just, and the good? Is the holy holy because the gods love it, or are the gods holy because they love the holy? By such easy questions did the wise Socrates make the market-place of Athens unsafe and relieve presumptuous young statesmen of the burden of imaginary knowledge, by showing them how confused, unclear, and self-contradictory their ideas were.

      You know the fate of the importunate questioner. So called good society avoided him on the promenade. Only the ignorant accompanied him. And finally he drank the cup of hemlock—a lot which we ofttimes wish would fall to modern critics of his stamp.

      What we have learned from Socrates, however—our inheritance from him—is scientific criticism. Every one who busies himself with science recognises how unsettled and indefinite the notions are which he has brought with him from common life, and how, on a minute examination of things, old differences are effaced and new ones introduced. The history of science is full of examples of this constant change, development, and clarification of ideas.

      But we will not linger by this general consideration of the fluctuating character of ideas, which becomes a source of real uncomfortableness, when we reflect that it applies to almost every notion of life. Rather shall we observe by the study of a physical example how much a thing changes when it is closely examined, and how it assumes, when thus considered, increasing definiteness of form.

      The majority of you think, perhaps, you know quite well the distinction between a liquid and a solid. And precisely persons who have never busied themselves with physics