C. from 331.36 metres per second. In a narrow pipe the
influence of the walls makes itself felt and produces various effects,
in particular a kind of dispersion in space of the harmonics of the
sound. This phenomenon, according to M. Brillouin, is perfectly
explicable by a theory similar to the theory of gratings.
CHAPTER III
PRINCIPLES
Sec. 1. THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS
Facts conscientiously observed lead by induction to the enunciation of
a certain number of laws or general hypotheses which are the
principles already referred to. These principal hypotheses are, in the
eyes of a physicist, legitimate generalizations, the consequences of
which we shall be able at once to check by the experiments from which
they issue.
Among the principles almost universally adopted until lately figure
prominently those of mechanics--such as the principle of relativity,
and the principle of the equality of action and reaction. We will not
detail nor discuss them here, but later on we shall have an
opportunity of pointing out how recent theories on the phenomena of
electricity have shaken the confidence of physicists in them and have
led certain scholars to doubt their absolute value.
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