Mathematical Physics

Abstract

THE scope and quality of the two works under review are very different, but they are both concerned with branches of theoretical physics, and attack them rather from the point of view of the pure mathematician. This raises an important question of pedagogy, on which there may be differences of opinion. In introducing the differential calculus, for example, is it best to base it on crude ideas about the tangents of curves, or should we begin with the full machinery of the theory of limits? Most teachers adopt the former course, for the reason that it quickly opens out wide ranges for application, whereas, though the logical introduction may sharpen the student's faculties, he may become so busy suspecting the soundness of all the ordinary mathematical processes that he will never learn why anyone should ever want to differentiate anything.

(1) Foundations of Potential Theory.

Prof. O. D. Kellogg. (Die Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften in Einzeldarstellungen mit besonderer Berüeksichtigung der Anwendungsgebiete, herausgegeben von R. Courant, Band 31.) Pp. ix + 384. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1929.) 19.60 gold marks.

(2) The Electromagnetic Field.

Max Mason Warren Weaver. Pp. xiii + 390. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1929.) 27s. net.