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Laboratory Notes by Professor Tait - 3. On a simple Mode of explaining the Optical Effects of Mirrors and Lenses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

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Extract

It is very singular to notice how small a matter makes the difference between the intelligibility and unintelligibility of a demonstration to an audience as a whole not mathematical. In no part of Physics have I found this so marked as in the most elementary portions of geometrical optics. Such a formula as

when interpreted directly as signifying that “the sum of the reciprocals of the distances of the object and image from the surface of a concave spherical mirror, is equal to double the reciprocal of the radius of the mirror,”. if understood at all, is understood as a sort of memoria technica which enables the student to make calculations; but unless he have some knowledge of mathematics it suggests absolutely no higher meaning.

Type
Proceedings 1870-71
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1872

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