 | Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia |  |
IV.—NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.
Professor Patterson.—The course of lectures in this school is divided
into two parts, each of which is followed by a general written examination
of the students. The first part treats of the properties of ponderable
bodies, and includes Statics, Dynamics, Hydrostatics, Hydrodynamics,
Pneumatics, Crystalization, Molecular and Capillary Attraction,
Strength and Stress of Materials, and Acoustics. The second part comprises
Heat, (including Meteorology and the Steam-engine,) Electricity
and Galvanism, Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism, Optics, Astronomy.
The text-books used are, Larduer and Kater's Mechanics, Lardner's
Hydrostatics and Pneumatics, Brewster's Optics, the Treatises on Heat.
Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism, in the Library
of Useful Knowledge, and Herschel's Astronomy.
As the enactments require only an acquaintance with arithmetic in order
to enter this school, mathematical demonstrations, though not avoided
by the Professor, are not required of the students of the general class.
But the candidates for graduation form a separate class, and are taught
Trigonometry,) to Natural Philosophy. The application of the higher
calculus belongs to the school of Mathematics.
The Apparatus provided for the school of Natural Philosophy is very
extensive and complete, and thus enables the Professor to illustrate every
part of his course by experiments in the presence of his class. An Observatory,
with its appropriate astronomical instruments, is also attached
to this school.
| Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia | |