法拉第也是一位傑出的科學教育者，他在一八四○至一八六○年間以蠟燭為主題，對青少年發表的一系列演講尤其著名。演講的內容後來被編成一本書──《蠟燭的化學史》（Chemical History of a Candle），書中篇章包括蠟燭的組成、蠟燭的燃燒，以及氫、氧、水、二氧化碳的物理化學性質，還有大氣的組成。
這一本基礎物理化學通俗讀物在西方十分流行，在此書中，法拉第利用蠟燭將自然的奧祕揭示給世人看，由這本書可以看出法拉第在科學上的素養，以及他 在推廣通俗科學上的努力。法拉第關於蠟燭的第一次演講，是在一八四八年的聖誕節，聽眾是青少年朋友，最後一次則是在一八六○年的聖誕節。
蜡烛的故事(法拉第).pdf_免费高速下载_
Keeper of the Flame
By PETER PESIC
Michael Faraday is one of the most beguiling and lovable figures in the history of science. Though he could not understand a single equation, he deduced the essential structure of the laws of electromagnetism through visualization and physical intuition. (James Clerk Maxwell would later give them mathematical form.) Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday over his desk, for Einstein also thought of himself primarily as a visual and physical thinker, not an abstract mathematician.
Working in London as an apprentice book-binder in the early 1800s, Faraday started to read the books he was binding and to attend popular lectures on science delivered by Humphry Davy, the celebrated chemist. Faraday was so enthralled that he wrote Davy and offered to be his assistant, enclosing the notes he had taken on Davy's lectures. Davy was so impressed that he offered Faraday the job. In time, Faraday succeeded Davy as a professor at the Royal Institution in London, making many crucial discoveries in physics and chemistry.
Chemical History of a Candle
By Michael Faraday
Oxford, 152 pages, $24.95
Faraday was not only a wizard of experimental skill but a deep thinker and theorist. He noticed during one of his lectures that a moving magnet would induce a current in a coil though a stationary magnet would not. This induction effect is essential to the functioning of every motor, generator or electromagnetic device currently in operation.
Faraday was also a wonderful lecturer. In the 1820s he originated the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution, which continue to this day. They were popular presentations meant primarily for young people, but princes and politicians also flocked to hear him. "The Chemical History of a Candle," perhaps Faraday's most famous series of lectures, has remained in print since first delivered in 1861. This edition, including a facsimile of Faraday's original handwritten notes, was produced to celebrate the 150th anniversary.
Faraday's text is still charming and rich, a judgment that few popular works on science could sustain after so many years. Though he addresses himself to an "auditory of juveniles," he calls for his audience to follow a close chain of reasoning presented through a series of experiments and deductions. Not many current popularizations ask or offer as much. To be sure, Faraday treated his hearers to plenty of explosions and chemical wonders, but in so doing he let them experience the authentic scientific process of thoughtful questioning.
At every turn, Faraday surprises us with the hidden facets of the candle's burning, such as how its seemingly immaterial flame derives its brilliance from the combustion of solid, dirty soot. In his exposition, the abstract names of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide take on fullness and character, as if they were the protagonists of an amazing drama in which we also find ourselves: "In every one of us there is a living process of combustion going on very similar to that of a candle," as Faraday illustrates in his experiments.
In his closing, he turns from our metabolic resemblance to a candle to his deeper wish that "you may, like it, shine as lights to those about you."
Frank James, Faraday's successor at the Royal Institution, has written an introduction that will be useful to those curious about the origins and reception of this classic text, but I wish he had included more of the general background about Faraday himself that would help a wider public appreciate the book. Captions would have helped readers understand the drawings; more detailed notes would have helped clarify the text. Though we are told that what Faraday calls carbonic acid we know as carbon dioxide, we are left in the dark about "coal-gas." Readers might well wonder what, if anything, modern chemistry can add anything to Faraday's account.
Faraday thought of himself as a "philosopher," not a "physicist" (a new-fangled term he disliked). Addressing us as "we philosophers," he adds that "I hope that I may class you and myself together in this case." By philosophy he means not abstract speculation but intense questioning of the things of this world: "Why does the ice float [upon water]? — Think of that, and philosophize. Because the ice is larger than the quantity of water which can produce it, and therefore the ice weighs the lighter and the water is the heaver." We philosophers should all rejoice to see his little classic shedding its gentle light again.
—Mr. Pesic is the author of "Sky in a Bottle."
0 意見:
張貼意見