Consider
the peculiarities belonging to the study of changes of any sort. The
interest is held, for the mind is constantly gaining the new. The
attention cannot be divided--all parts of the change, all phases of the
action, must be known, and to be known must be _observed_; while in
other forms of lessons the attention may be diverted for a moment to
return to the consideration of exactly what was being observed before.
It goes without saying that in one case quick and accurate observation,
a retentive memory, and the association of causes and effects follow,
and that in the other they do not.
I advocate, therefore, the teaching of physical science in our
schools--_in all our schools_. Physical science taught by the
experimental method.
An experiment has been defined as a question put to Nature, a question
asked in _things_ rather than in _words_, and so conditioned that no
uncertain answer can be given. Nature says that all matter gravitates,
not in words, but in the swing of planets around the sun, and in the
leap of the avalanche. And men have devised ingenious machines through
which Nature may tell us the invariable laws of gravitation, and give
some hint as to why it is true.
There are two kinds of experiments, and two corresponding kinds of
investigators.
I. In original investigation there are the following elements:
1. The careful determination of all the conditions under which the
experiment takes place.
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