Professor Merriman is the author of a number of text-books on several branches of applied mathematics, including a well-known treatise on the Method of Least Squares. In the present volume his aim is to employ "the best methods of applied mechanics in the development of the fundamental principles and methods of rational mechanics." "To this end constant appeals are made to experience, by which alone the laws of mechanics can be established, .... and a system of units is employed with which every boy is acquainted." In the ...
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Professor Merriman is the author of a number of text-books on several branches of applied mathematics, including a well-known treatise on the Method of Least Squares. In the present volume his aim is to employ "the best methods of applied mechanics in the development of the fundamental principles and methods of rational mechanics." "To this end constant appeals are made to experience, by which alone the laws of mechanics can be established, .... and a system of units is employed with which every boy is acquainted." In the first 111 pages the leading principles of Statics are dealt with. The remainder of the book is devoted to Dynamics. Four hundred examples give ample occupation to the student. The work is written in clear and concise terms, and the author appears thoroughly justified in expressing the hope that a student who has worked through the 400 problems will have laid a broad and strong foundation for his future progress. One point of detail offers an opening for discussion. Professor Merriman makes much use of the terms Inertia and Force of Inertia, following closely Newton's explanation of "Vis Inertiae." A teacher of elementary work has always to bear in mind that not everything which is lawful is expedient, and it may be permissible to remark that the expediency of using the terms Inertia, Force of Inertia, in an "elementary text-book," is not established by the mere fact that Newton used them. Is not the statement "matter has Inertia" merely a poetical, or proverbial, or pithy mode of stating that Matter is distinguished from No-matter by the facts that Matter conforms to the "Laws of Motion"! Professor Merriman's own use of the terms Inertia and Force of Inertia is perfectly precise and unimpeachable; but does not the use made of so comfortable a word by some writers encourage a student to indulge in pseudo explanations such as that a body is hard to stop because it has so much inertia-a proposition which on investigation will be often found to belong to a transcendental branch of logic, known as feminine! "Inertia" as an "explanation" of phenomena belongs to the class of philosophical terms which includes "vital force" as an explanation of the growth of living things. -"The Mathematical Gazette"
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