In a course of Experimental Physics we may consider either the Physics
or the Experiments as the leading feature. We may either employ the
experiments to illustrate the phenomena of a particular branch of
Physics, or we may make some physical research in order to exemplify a
particular experimental method. In the order of time, we should
begin, in the Lecture Room, with a course of lectures on some branch
of Physics aided by experiments of illustration, and conclude, in the
Laboratory, with a course of experiments of research.
Let me say a few words on these two classes of
experiments,--Experiments of Illustration and Experiments of Research.
The aim of an experiment of illustration is to throw light upon some
scientific idea so that the student may be enabled to grasp it. The
circumstances of the experiment are so arranged that the phenomenon
which we wish to observe or to exhibit is brought into prominence,
instead of being obscured and entangled among other phenomena, as it
is when it occurs in the ordinary course of nature.
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