Faraday - The Forces of Matter
Michael Faraday's book "The Forces of Matter" is my latest read. It is a transcript, with illustrations, of the series of six lectures for young people which Faraday gave at the Royal Institution during the 1859-60 Christmas holidays. Quite some time ago I read Faraday's "The Chemical History of a Candle", another series of juvenile Christmas break lectures, and it earned a place on my list of ten books that I wish (at age 51) I had known to read much earlier (at age 21). The "Candle" book is the best illustration of how to do practical experimental science that I've ever seen.
Faraday's "The Forces of Matter" is equally engaging and informative. Only 84 pages. Reprinted by Dover, quite inexpensive. The forces he considers are gravitation, cohesion, heat, chemical affinity, electricity, magnetism. He illustrates them with simple experiments which were performed in the lecture hall, and relates the various forces together. For example, when solid matter particles dissociate into liquid state, they take up heat -- thereby cooling their surroundings. He shows an example. Today we would think of how ice cream is made, by adding salt to crushed ice within a bowl, and the bowl then cools the nearby cream mixture.
Faraday's "The Forces of Matter" is equally engaging and informative. Only 84 pages. Reprinted by Dover, quite inexpensive. The forces he considers are gravitation, cohesion, heat, chemical affinity, electricity, magnetism. He illustrates them with simple experiments which were performed in the lecture hall, and relates the various forces together. For example, when solid matter particles dissociate into liquid state, they take up heat -- thereby cooling their surroundings. He shows an example. Today we would think of how ice cream is made, by adding salt to crushed ice within a bowl, and the bowl then cools the nearby cream mixture.