A Companion to the Physical SciencesA brief and highly idiosyncratic creation of a teacher of the history of science (University of Durham). Words/concepts (absorption, caloric, God, paper, truth, women...) are given a paragraph of (frequently not very deeply informative) explanatory text, in which words keyed elsewhere in the volume are printed in boldface. Very brief references (also idiosyncratic) are presented at the end of some (by no means all) of the entries. It's rather hard to imagine the reader who would find this reference book to be very useful. (NW) Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR |
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A. W. Williamson academies acid analogy apparatus astronomy atomic weights became become believed benzene bodies Boyle Britain caloric caloric theory Cambridge chemical chemical affinity chemical elements chemistry chemists colours compounds conservation of energy contemporaries corpuscles Darwin Davy deduction demonstration Descartes discovery early nineteenth century Earth eighteenth century Einstein electrons elements ether example experiment explanation falsification Faraday Faraday's fluid force fundamental Galileo gases geometry gravity heat Helmholtz hydrogen hypothesis idea important induction involved J. J. Thomson journals kind kinetic theory laboratory Lavoisier lectures light London mass mathematics matter means mechanical metals molecules motion natural Newton nineteenth century observations orbits oxygen papers paradigm particles perhaps Periodic Table phenomena philosophy phlogiston physics planets Polywater predictions principle problem published quantum theory radioactivity rays reactions Royal Society scientific scientists seemed seventeenth century showed spectrum steam-engine structure textbooks thermodynamics things University Press