Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Elements of Mechanics: A d104-Book for Colleges and Technical Schools
Such a method is certainly calculated to limber up our theories and put them all at work, ' the pragmatici method our friends the philosophers call it, a method which pretends to a conquer ing destiny and whatever one may think of that philosophy of life which exhibits itself in a temperament of the most intensely practical and matter-of-fact type, it is certain that pragmatism is the only philosophy a science teacher can entertain and escape what to him is the most dangerous form of idolatry, science for its own sake.
We wish to place on record our contempt for the poundal as an actual practical unit of force, and also for the slug pounds) as an actual practical unit of mass. Engineers will per haps always measure breaking strengths and the like in pounds weight, and hungry people will perhaps always buy bread and meat by the pound. But most certainly we do need the word pounded or the word slug so as to enable systematic units and practical units to be connected in intelligible argument. We pre fer the word pounded for this purpose. There is no doubt in our minds that practical units should be accepted in their entirety, pounds of cargo and pounds-weight of propelling force, and we consider that to attempt to simplify the equations of dynamics by the introduction of an unfamiliar and unused unit of force or mass is ridiculous.
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