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Dieter Mergel

Physics with Excel

and Python
Using the Same Data Structure
Volume I: Basics, Exercises and Tasks
Physics with Excel and Python
Dieter Mergel

Physics with Excel

and Python
Using the Same Data Structure
Volume I: Basics, Exercises and Tasks
Dieter Mergel
Fakultät für Physik
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

ISBN 978-3-030-82324-5 ISBN 978-3-030-82325-2 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82325-2

Based on the German language edition: Physik mit Excel und Visual Basic by Dieter Mergel,
© 2017 2017. Published by Springer-Spectrum. All Rights Reserved, and extended with Python solutions.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

Ψ E xcel—as powerful as necessary, Python—as simple as possible.

This book treats a series of physics exercises that were developed for
courses at the University of Duisburg-Essen for students training to become
physics/mathematics teachers or physics engineers. The exercises were intended to
introduce computational physics based on spreadsheet calculation combined with
simple VBA macros and also to broaden the beginner’s knowledge of physics.
This approach garnered positive reactions from practitioners and resulted in a text-
book in German.1 Furthermore, the methods developed turned out to be powerful
enough to treat a broad range of topics in undergraduate physics, resulting in a
second volume with exercises on particles, waves, fields, and random processes.2
Referees found the exercises interesting and ambitious enough to serve for
undergraduate education. However, concerns arose that spreadsheet techniques,
although useful in the business world, might be a dead end for students who would
be required to use scientific computing in their future research work. Therefore,
the concept has been changed for the present English version. Programming in
Python is now included from the beginning, while the same topics are addressed
as in the German textbook.
The key to all of the exercises is data structures, developed in introductory sec-
tions that explain the physical problems. They serve as an interface to both Excel
and Python, and potentially also to other applications for scientific computation.
To enable this approach, the Excel solutions in this edition use vectorized code
and matrix formulas to mimic broadcasting, an essential Python technique for
creating new arrays.
We feel that this approach is suitable as a low-threshold introduction to scien-
tific computing as early as high school all the way up to undergraduate physics

1 Dieter Mergel, Physik mit Excel und Visual Basic Grundlagen, Beispiele und Aufgaben, Springer
Spektrum (2017), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37857-7.
2 Dieter Mergel, Physik lernen mit Excel und Visual Basic, Anwendungen auf Teilchen, Wellen,

Felder und Zufallsprozesse, Springer Spektrum (2018), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-575

13-0.

v
vi Preface

classes at the university and may also be a good start for students who later choose
to specialize in computational physics.
Our approach is intended to make the student fit for a computer-oriented world,
be it for spreadsheet calculations in business, scientific computing in research, or
mathematics and physics teaching in high school. We take into account that not all
students have the same attitude towards programming; some have to be encouraged
to venture into a new world, whereas others have to be cautioned not to rush into
blind programming.

Duisburg, Germany Dieter Mergel

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 A Two-Track Didactical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 What Can You Expect? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 What Do You Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Tim, Alac, and Mag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Didactic Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.6 Subject Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.7 Getting Started with Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7.1 Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7.2 Spreadsheet Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.8 Getting Started with Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.9 Skills to Be Trained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Data Structures, Excel and Python Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Introduction: Named Ranges in Excel, Arrays in Numpy . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Characteristics of a Parabola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.1 Different Definitions of a Parabola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Basic Exercise in Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.1 Cell Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.2 Graphical Representation of a Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.3 Smart Legends in Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.4 Scroll Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.5 Summary: Cell References and Name Manager . . . . . . . 26
2.3.6 What Have We Learned so Far, and How
to Proceed Further? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3.7 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Python and NumPy Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.1 Basic Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.2 Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.3 Python Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4.4 Numpy Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

vii
viii Contents

2.4.5 Standard Plot Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.4.6 Formatted Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5 Matrix Calculations in Excel and Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5.1 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5.2 Operations on Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.5.3 Matrices in Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5.4 Matrices in Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.6 Four Parabolas and Their Upper Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.6.1 Graphical Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.6.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.6.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.6.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.6.5 Extrema Along Different Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.7 Sum of Four Cosine Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.7.1 Sound and a Cosine Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.7.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.7.3 Spreadsheet Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.7.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.7.5 Producing Labels (as Strings) in Excel and Python . . . . 68
2.8 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3 Formula Networks and Linked Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.1 Introduction: Well-Structured Sheets and Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2 Image Construction for Focusing and Diverging Lenses . . . . . . . . 78
3.2.1 Straight Line Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.2.2 Geometrical Image Construction for a Thin
Focusing Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.2.3 Imaging Equation with Correct Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.2.4 Beam Through a Converging Lens that Really
Contributes to the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.2.5 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.2.6 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.2.7 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.3 Doppler Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.3.1 A Formula for All Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.3.2 A Sound Source Passes a Remote Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.3.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.3.4 Spreadsheet Calculation “Remote Receiver” . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.3.5 Python Program “Remote Receiver” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.4 Exponentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.4.1 Explosive Character of Exponentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.4.2 General Exponential Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.4.3 Representation in a Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.4.4 Diode Characteristics I(U) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.4.5 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Contents ix

3.4.6 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

3.4.7 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.5 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4 Macros with Visual Basic and Their Correspondences in Python . . . 115
4.1 Introduction: For, If, Sub/Def . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2 Basic Exercise: For- Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2.1 Visual-Basic-Editor 1: Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2.2 Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.3 Macro-Controlled Drawings with For, Sub, If . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.3.1 Macro Recorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.3.2 Visual-Basic Editor 2: Macro Recording,
Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3.3 Programming Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.4 A Checkerboard Pattern (Excel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
4.4.1 Checkerboard, Same-Colored and Multi-colored . . . . . . . 132
4.4.2 Global Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.5 A Checkerboard Pattern (Python) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
4.5.1 Turtle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
4.5.2 Differences to Visual Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
4.5.3 Checkerboard with Squares, Triangles, and Circles . . . . 139
4.6 Drawing Densely-Packed Atomic Layers; Crystal Physics . . . . . . 143
4.6.1 Program Structure and Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
4.6.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
4.6.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
4.6.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
4.7 Text Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.7.1 Cutting and Joining Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.7.2 Data Structure and Program Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4.7.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.7.4 Programming Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
4.7.5 VBA Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
4.7.6 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
4.8 Processing the Protocol of a Measuring Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.8.1 Protocol of a Measuring Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
4.8.2 Detection of Code Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
4.8.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
4.8.4 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
4.8.5 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.9 User-Defined Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.9.1 User-Defined Functions as Add-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.9.2 Scalar Product and Vector Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
4.9.3 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.10 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
x Contents

5 Basic Mathematical Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

5.1 Introduction: Calculus, Vectors, and Linear Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.2 Straight-Line Segment Under a Magnifying Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.2.1 Under a Magnifying Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
5.2.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5.2.4 Plotting Vectors with Python Matplotlib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
5.3 Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
5.3.1 First and Second Derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
5.3.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
5.3.3 Spreadsheet Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
5.3.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
5.4 Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
5.4.1 Area Under a Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
5.4.2 Length of a Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5.4.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature for the Arrays
in the Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5.4.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
5.4.5 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
5.5 Vectors in the Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
5.5.1 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
5.5.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
5.5.3 Spreadsheet Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
5.5.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
5.6 Tangents to and Perpendiculars on a Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
5.6.1 At/On a Polynomial and an Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
5.6.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
5.6.3 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
5.6.4 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
5.7 Banked Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5.7.1 Cross-Section of the Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5.7.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
5.7.3 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
5.7.4 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
5.8 Weighted Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
5.8.1 A Mobile with Two Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
5.8.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.8.3 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.8.4 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
5.9 Systems of Linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.9.1 Polynomial and Electrical Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.9.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
5.9.3 Spreadsheet Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
5.9.4 Python Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Contents xi

5.10 Some Mathematical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

5.11 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
6 Superposition of Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
6.1 Introduction: Translations and Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
6.2 Projectile Trajectory with Velocity Vectors (T-T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
6.2.1 Projectile Trajectory and Velocity Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
6.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6.2.3 Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
6.2.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
6.2.5 Animation of Figures with FuncAnimation . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
6.3 Cycloid, Rolling Curve (R-T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
6.3.1 Trace of a Writing Point Fixed at a Rolling Wheel . . . . 238
6.3.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
6.3.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
6.3.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
6.4 Foucault’s Pendulum (T-R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
6.4.1 A Lecture Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
6.4.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
6.4.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
6.4.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.5 Anchor, Deflected Out of Its Rest Position (R-R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
6.5.1 Deflected Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
6.5.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
6.5.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
6.5.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
6.6 Wavefronts, Sound Barriers, and Mach Cone (T-T) . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
6.6.1 Emitting Sound Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
6.6.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
6.6.3 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
6.6.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
6.7 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
7 Integration of Newton’s Equation of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.1 Introduction: Approximated Mean Value Instead of Exact
Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.1.1 Newton’s Equation of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.1.2 Four Methods for Estimating the Average
Acceleration in a Time Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
7.1.3 Tactical Approaches in Python and Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
7.2 Harmonic Oscillation with “Progress with Look-Ahead”
and “Runge–Kutta” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
7.2.1 Equation of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
7.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
7.2.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
7.2.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
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7.3 Falling from a (Not Too) Great Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

7.3.1 Limiting Cases, Analytically Solved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
7.3.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
7.3.3 Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
7.3.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.4 Stratospheric Jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
7.4.1 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
7.4.2 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
7.4.3 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
7.5 A Car Drives with Variable Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
7.5.1 Various Types of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
7.5.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
7.5.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
7.5.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
7.6 Bungee Jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
7.6.1 Simulation of the Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
7.6.2 Analytical Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
7.6.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
7.6.4 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
7.6.5 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
7.7 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
8 Random Numbers and Statistical Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
8.1 Introduction: Statistical Experiments Instead of Theoretical
Derivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
8.2 Equi-Distributed Random Numbers, Frequencies
of Occurrence, Chi2 Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
8.2.1 A Spreadsheet Experiment with Random Numbers . . . . 310
8.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.2.3 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.3 Points Randomly Distributed in a Unit Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
8.3.1 Creation and Distribution of the Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
8.3.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
8.3.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
8.3.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
8.3.5 Why Calculate Twice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.4 Set Operations in Numpy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
8.4.1 Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
8.4.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
8.4.3 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
8.5 Normally Distributed Random Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
8.5.1 Normal Distribution, Probability Density
and Distribution Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
8.5.2 Random-Number Generator and Frequencies
of Occurrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
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8.5.3 Where Do Observed and Theoretical Frequencies

Fit Better Together? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
8.5.4 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
8.5.5 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
8.5.6 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
8.6 Random-Number Generator, General Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
8.7 Diffraction of Photons at a Double-Slit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
8.7.1 Physical Background: Wave-Particle Dualism . . . . . . . . . 348
8.7.2 Cos2 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
8.7.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
8.7.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
8.7.5 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
8.7.6 Simulation in a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
8.8 Chi2 Distribution and Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
8.8.1 Data Structure, Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
8.8.2 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
8.9 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
9 Evaluation of Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
9.1 Introduction: We Know Everything and Play Stupid . . . . . . . . . . . 365
9.2 Weighing a Glass Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
9.2.1 Discussion on the Accuracy of a Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
9.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
9.2.3 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
9.2.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
9.3 A Procedure for Rounding to Relevant Digits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
9.3.1 Numerical Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
9.3.2 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
9.3.3 Python Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
9.3.4 VBA Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
9.4 Increasing the Measuring Accuracy Through Repetition . . . . . . . . 374
9.4.1 Standard Deviation and Standard Error
of the Mean Value of a Measurement Series . . . . . . . . . . . 375
9.4.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
9.4.3 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
9.4.4 Spreadsheet Layout for This Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
9.4.5 How to Report a Measurement Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
9.5 The t Statistics Connects Confidence Interval
with Confidence Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
9.5.1 Student’s t Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
9.5.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
9.5.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
9.5.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
9.6 Combining Results from Several Measurement Series . . . . . . . . . . 389
9.6.1 Combining Two Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
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9.6.2
Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
9.6.3
Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
9.6.4
Python, Internally and Externally Consistent Error
of the Combined Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
9.7 Propagation of Standard Deviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
9.7.1 Rules for Propagation of Standard Deviations . . . . . . . . . 397
9.7.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
9.7.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
9.7.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
9.8 Propagation of Confidence Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
9.8.1 From Variance to Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
9.8.2 Sum and Product of Two Measurands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
9.9 Mass of a Thin Film on a Glass Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
9.9.1 Instructions for Use for Accurate Measurements
and Their Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
9.9.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
9.9.3 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
9.9.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
9.10 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
10 Fitting Trend Curves to Data Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
10.1 Introduction: Linear and Nonlinear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
10.1.1 Straight Line Through Data Points by Sight . . . . . . . . . . . 419
10.1.2 Multilinear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
10.1.3 Nonlinear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
10.1.4 Coefficient of Determination R2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
10.1.5 C-spec Error with Iterative t Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
10.2 Linear Trend Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
10.2.1 Creating Data Points and Evaluating Them . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
10.2.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
10.2.3 Spreadsheet Calculation with Linest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
10.2.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
10.3 Fitting a Polynomial Trend Line to Data Points
with Multilinear Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
10.3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
10.3.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
10.3.3 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
10.3.4 Python Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
10.4 Exponential Trend Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
10.4.1 Exponential and Logarithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
10.4.2 Exponential or Polynomial? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
10.4.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
10.4.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
10.4.5 Spreadsheet Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
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10.5 Solving Nonlinear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

10.5.1 Intersection of Straight Lines with a Parabola . . . . . . . . . 448
10.5.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
10.5.3 Spreadsheet Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
10.5.4 Python Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
10.6 Temperature Dependence of the Saturation Magnetization
of a Ferromagnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
10.6.1 Langevin Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
10.6.2 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
10.6.3 Spreadsheet Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
10.6.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
10.7 Fitting Gaussians to Spectral Lines with Nonlinear
Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
10.7.1 Fitting the Sum of Two Gaussians to Data Points . . . . . . 460
10.7.2 C-spec Errors of the Coefficients by a Statistical
Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
10.7.3 Data Structure and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
10.7.4 Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
10.7.5 Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
10.7.6 C-spec Error of the Optimized Coefficients
by Simulation-Based t Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
10.8 Questions and Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
About the Author

Dieter Mergel studied physics in Göttingen, obtained his doctorate at the Techni-
cal University of Clausthal in the field of solid-state physics, and worked 11 years
in the Philips Research Laboratories Hamburg/Aachen on automatic speech recog-
nition and optical data storage. Since 1993, he is Professor of Technical Physics
at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His professional activities include research
in the field of solid-state layers and lectures for students in teaching and medical
professions.

xvii
Introduction
1

Possible errata and corrections in the internet at: go.sn.pub/Ob4vCR.

For every chapter, solutions for each two exercises in Excel and Python can be
found at internet adresses.

1.1 A Two-Track Didactical Approach

History
The exercises in this book arise from a German textbook that emerged from courses
for prospective teachers and students of Technical Physics at the University of
Duisburg-Essen with the intention to prepare the students for a computerized world.
The participants in the courses had already been studying physics for at least one
year. However, the explanations of the exercises are so explicit that they should also
be suitable for beginners.
Said courses are based on excel and Visual Basic (VBA). The current English
version includes Python from the very beginning so as to make it more generally
useful for students who later choose to dive deeper into Scientific Computation.

Exercises
The subject matter is presented in nine chapters as a series of exercises. Every exercise
consists of three steps:
1. The physical concept is introduced with mathematical equations and diagrams.
2. An adequate data structure is set up independent of the implementation in a
particular programming platform, but taking care that the same nomenclature
can be used in both mathematical equations and programming. This serves as an
interface to any programming application.
3. Solutions in excel and Python are designed so that a solution in one application
can directly be translated into the other one.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1

D. Mergel, Physics with Excel and Python,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82325-2_1
2 1 Introduction

To enable this approach, training in excel emphasizes vectorized code, matrix for-
mulas, and constructs that allow for broadcasting in the same way as Python.
Furthermore, programming VBA macros interacting with spreadsheets introduces
looping, logical queries, and functions.

Didactical advantages of the two-track system

We strive to combine the didactical advantages of both programming applications:

– Spreadsheets are interactive; charts react immediately to changes, and data

structures (but not formulas) are immediately visible in spreadsheets.
– In Python, formulas (but not data structures) are immediately visible.
– The VBA interpreter allows us to run the program step by step and to watch
intermediate results in a spreadsheet, or read the content of variables by mouse-
over in the code.

Our guideline: spreadsheet calculations as powerful as necessary, Python program-

ming as simple as possible.
Emphasis is not on mere computational techniques, but on exercises that may
be regarded as small projects so that project-related difficulties manifest and can be
addressed, e.g., by checking the consistency of equations and numerical solutions
with limiting cases that can be solved analytically.
We maintain that this approach is not only suitable as a low-threshold introduction
to scientific computing as early as High School and up to undergraduate Physics
classes at University. It should also be a good start for students who later choose to
specialize in Computational Physics or, more generally, for professional use.

1.2 What Can You Expect?

What can you, dear reader, expect from this book?

You can expect to be introduced to the world of Python and excel by:

– training to work with numpy arrays, list slicing and broadcasting in Python,
– working with similar constructs, vector structures, and matrix operations also
in excel,
– learning how to write programs with looping, logical queries, and functions in
Python and VBA for excel,
– training how to lay out spreadsheets clearly so that they are apt for simple
scientific computing,
– developing VBA macros that exchange data with spreadsheets,
– applying standard mathematical methods numerically.

and, with that,

– getting a better understanding of certain mathematical and physical concepts.

1.2 What Can You Expect? 3

After having successfully completed the exercises, you should have gained so
much self-confidence that you can answer the question “Programming practice?”
with an enthusiastic “Yes!”.

1.3 What Do You Need?

You will need a Physics textbook (anyone will do, e.g., the one you have at hand
during your studies anyway) and two more books on programming as indicated
below.

EXCEL
To work with excel, you only need a computer in which excel has been imple-
mented (any version; the exercises in this book have been checked in excel 2010
and excel 2019) and an introduction to excel (do not buy one before having done
the basic exercise in Sect. 2.3). In particular, you do not need a special development
environment for visual basic, because it is included in all versions of excel.

Python
You will need to install Anaconda, a free and open-source distribution of the Python
and R programming languages that also comprises the Jupyter Notebook by
default. The examples in this book were obtained with Python 3.7 in Jupyter.
You are advised to use both a book and internet courses to broaden your training
systematically. Make your choice after having gone through Exercises 2.4 and 2.5.

1.4 Tim, Alac, and Mag

You will soon meet two types of students and a tutor who will accompany
us throughout this book. The character named Tim (which stands for “timidus”
or “timida”, meaning shy)) represents those students who are somewhat hesi-
tant, fearing that they may fall short of the requirements, although they study
hard. The character named Alac (which stands for “alacer”, meaning alacritous,
high-flying) is typical of those vehemently self-confident students (men are gen-
erally over-represented) who believe that they already have a superior overview
and do not have to deal with what they consider mere bits and pieces. Mag
(for Magister/Magistra, i.e., the tutor who runs the course) tries to engage with
both characters, encouraging Tim and cautioning Alac, and clarifying that both
approaches are valuable and that every Physics student should venture into the
Computer world.
4 1 Introduction

Tim: Computers are not my thing

 Tim I see how well some fellow students are juggling programming tools, but
I’d rather stand back. I prefer to learn the stuff from textbooks.

 Mag This course is not intended to turn you into a computer nerd. You will not
learn any cool tricks. We restrict ourselves to some basic techniques that are prac-
ticed again and again. The computational techniques do not stand by themselves,
but are always taught in connection with physical problems.

 Tim But I have often heard that programming is a black art for which you have
to be specially talented.

 Mag Here, you will learn the most basic computer techniques that every
scientist, engineer, and science teacher must master to succeed in their profession.

 Alac Why excel and Python?

 Mag All algorithm-oriented computer languages have a similar structure.

Knowledge of specific commands is not the most important thing. You have to
learn how to translate physical and technical problems into a computational struc-
ture. Furthermore, the mistakes that beginners make are always the same in all
computer languages. The most important thing is to track, correct, and, finally,
avoid them. Anyhow, as we shall have spreadsheet solutions and Python pro-
grams in parallel, you will be sensitized more towards common structures than the
peculiarities of specific software.

Alac: How do I become a master programmer?

 Mag A master can be recognized by how he/she deals with errors. Any unno-
ticed error in spreadsheet formulas and programs can lead to disaster. It is essential
that you gain experience with data structures and programming constructs.

 Alac And that is what this course will accomplish?

 Mag Yes! By using data structures in spreadsheets and Python programs and
setting up graphical representations that are comprehensible, even when you look
at them after some time. And by developing simple procedures that control the
program flow.

 Tim Data structures, procedures, controlling; that sounds pretty challenging.

How can I learn all of that?

 Mag Let’s compare this course with learning a foreign language. How do you
learn foreign languages?
1.4 Tim, Alac, and Mag 5

 Alac Learning? For foreign languages, academic learning is useless in the long
run. You simply have to go abroad; the rest follows by itself.

 Tim Oh, I couldn’t learn like that. I couldn’t form a proper sentence in a for-
eign language without profound foreknowledge. I would have to learn the correct
grammar and vocabulary first before I would dare to speak.

A good balance

 Mag We are trying to find a good balance. You will learn the most straightfor-
ward “sentence” structures, but will also be “sent abroad” right off, and you will
have to make your way there. If you pass this test, you can be confident of being
able to learn the more complex “grammar” if necessary.

 Tim Is that thorough enough?

 Alac Will I learn the more tricky constructions too late?

 Mag Don’t worry! Working through this book will make you fit for a computer-
oriented world, be it for spreadsheet calculations in business or scientific comput-
ing in research. This can be tedious, but it will be worthwhile, whether it be as
early as learning at school or working for a Bachelor’s or Master’s, or even as late
as working on a Ph.D. thesis.

 Tim Can I manage this in addition to my studies in Physics?

 Mag I think so. Anyway, this course is about physics and will help you to pass
your exams.

1.5 Didactic Concept

Workshop atmosphere
Having cleared up the doubts harbored by Tim and Alac, we now explain the didactic
concept of this book.
In the courses at the University of Duisburg-Essen on Physics with Excel and
visual basic, learning was mostly done in a workshop, such as in physics labs for
beginners. The students dealt with the tasks alone or in pairs while in a computer
lab, ideally also helping each other out across groups and consulting the supervisor
when needed. Students could continue to work on their tasks outside of attendance
time so that everyone could work according to their learning progress.
Experience shows that the students enjoy the tasks, and the learning progress is
fastest when all three aspects—programming, physics, and mathematics—are com-
bined. The systematic practice of various isolated spreadsheet and programming
techniques is often perceived as too dull. The combination of calculations and graphs,
realized in nearly all exercises in this book, proved to be particularly instructive.
6 1 Introduction

Courses with 30 attendance hours

At the University of Duisburg-Essen, two excel-based courses were offered, each
with 30 attendance hours:

– a basic course for beginners, in which two tasks from each of the six Chaps. 2, 3,
4, 8, 9 and 10 were worked on and had to be presented to the supervisor;
– an advanced course with two tasks each from Chaps. 5, 6 and 7, and one task that
had not yet been worked on from the chapters of the beginner’s course. Sometimes,
two short exercises were combined into one task.

Subjects from a one-year physics course

The exercises rely on the subject matter from the first year of undergraduate physics.
We do not intend to repeat physics that can be found in standard textbooks. Therefore,
the introductions to the tasks are concise, but the solutions are presented in great
detail. Experience shows that this creates the risk that the students might work through
the exercises mechanically without caring about the physics context. To counteract
this tendency, simple questions regarding physics and programming are asked in the
middle of the text and answered in footnotes.
In Chaps. 8, 9 and 10, statistical concepts are illustrated in greater detail through
simulations, because many students lack basic knowledge in this area. Although
no theorems are logically derived, their structure should become clear, because the
simulations follow the mathematical ideas.

Simple solutions preferred

The material is presented in nine chapters, each featuring about five detailed exer-
cises. The aim is to pursue clear and simple solutions in which the physical
justification for each step is traceable. To achieve this, suboptimal solutions, sub-
optimal with respect to computational efficiency and numerical precision, are often
presented instead of solutions that are perfect from the outset. It has proven to be
didactically more efficient to point out the shortcomings of this first approach and
give the reader tools for improvements.

Broom rules
To many beginners, spreadsheet calculations and, especially, computer programming
seem like witchcraft. We like to address this idea by setting up “broom rules” that
the students hopefully will not forget so easily. Some examples: “ Half, half, full;
the halves count twice” (Runge–Kutta of the 4th order) or “ Mostly, not always.
(“fundamental rule” of statistical reasoning, no statement is 100% sure).
In addition, Mag puts stumbling blocks along the learning path, in talks with the
two student characters, Tim, who learns the material from the beginner’s course dili-
gently, and Alac, who does not hesitate to implement premature ad-hoc solutions. It
is important to emphasize that both attitudes have their advantages and shortcom-
ings, and neither student should feel denigrated. It is just that some students have
to be encouraged to venture into the programming world, whereas others have to be
cautioned against rushing too quickly into coding.
1.5 Didactic Concept 7

Exam questions
At the end of every chapter, a collection of rehearsals and tasks is presented, typically
requested in written and oral examinations.

1.6 Subject Matter

Block A, Fundamentals (Chaps. 2, 3 and 4)

Ψ The dollar makes it absolute.
The student will learn how to organize spreadsheets, design charts reasonably,
and implement simple programming procedures. The necessary computational tech-
niques are embedded in Physics tasks and trained with clearly arranged formula
calculations, presentations, interpretations of curves, and simple mathematics. The
reader should consult, in parallel, systematic introductions to Excel and Python
for help.

Block B, Physics and Mathematics

Ψ Half, half, whole, the halves count twice.
In Chap. 5, the reader will find exercises for analysis and vector and matrix
calculations in the form of a spreadsheet-specific introduction to mathematics with
parallel Python programs.
In Chap. 6, the knowledge gained in Chaps. 2 to 5 is applied to the kinematic
superposition of movements, including animated charts.
In Chap. 7, we deal with various methods for solving Newton’s equation of motion
and apply them to one-dimensional motions, such as a jump from the stratosphere,
Exercise 7.4, or a bungee jump, Exercise 7.6.

Block C, Simulation and analysis of experiments

 If in doubt, count!
Evaluation of measurements is regarded as a critical skill to be exercised at the
beginning of studies in Physics. Therefore, this block is particularly detailed and
illustrated with simulations based on chance, because, as experience shows, many
students’ most significant knowledge gaps are in the field of probability and statistics.
Furthermore, statistics is the branch of mathematics that is most important outside
of technical professions.
We intend to develop a good understanding of concepts through statistical experi-
ments with random numbers without going deep into formal mathematics. Statistical
rules are intended to be illustrated and checked through multiple repetitions of sim-
ulations designed to test the hit rate (“Does the error range capture the true value?”).
For this purpose, random number generators are introduced in Chap. 8, e.g., for
normal distributions.
The student will learn how to analyze and graphically represent measurements
(Chap. 9), emphasizing the precise meaning of error ranges (“C-spec errors” related
to confidence levels). Before this can be done, the measurement process must be
8 1 Introduction

simulated realistically to obtain data that can be evaluated. Our tools for simulation
are random numbers generated according to the desired distribution.
With linear regression, mathematical functions are fitted to sets of measured values
to get trend lines through data points (Chap. 10). Furthermore, an introduction to
the important technique of non-linear regression with solver functions will be given,
again, in both excel and Python.

 Follow-up book A follow-up book, “Physics with Excel and Python, Using the
Same Data Structure. Applications”, is being prepared, dealing, in the same style,
with advanced topics, structured according to physical and mathematical aspects,
such as:

– properties of oscillations,
– motions in the plane,
– the steady-state Schrödinger equation,
– partial differential equations,
– Monte Carlo methods,
– wave optics,
– statistical physics, and
– variational calculus.

1.7 Getting Started with Excel

1.7.1 Start Menu

In Fig. 1.1, you see the start menu of excel 2019, where the main tab for-
mulas has been activated, and the cursor has been positioned over the group

Ribbon

Formula bar
Command

Column header
Active cell
Handle
Row number

Fig. 1.1 The start menu of excel, with the main tab formulas activated
1.7 Getting Started with Excel 9

function library to show the command math&trig. Arrows indicate the dif-
ferent elements of the start menu, namely ribbon, tab, group, formula bar, and
command, as well as elements of the working area, column header, row num-
ber, active cell, and handle of a cell. To indicate a “click path” in the text,
we write a sequence tab/group/command/function, e.g., formulas/function
library/math&trig/cos to call the cosine function.
Throughout this book, we will take screenshots from excel 2019. Experience
has shown that students can work with these instructions in every version of excel
without major difficulties.

1.7.2 Spreadsheet Presentation

 structure of a spreadsheet
In Fig. 1.2 (S), a spreadsheet organization in the  structure, often employed in our
exercises, is shown. With  (“gamma”), we refer to the straight lines above C14:G14
and to the left of C14: C174.
Above :

– the parameters of the task are defined in the range C2:C6,

– these cells get the names in B2:B6, with which they can be called in formulas,
– the most informative parameters of the exercise are integrated into a text, here, in
cell E4 (with the formula in E5) that can be taken as a legend in a figure.

Left of :

– the values for the independent variable t are in B14: B174.

A B C D E F G H
1 Prespecifications
2 Amplitude of pendulum Ap 1.50
3 Period of pendulum Tp 1.20
4 Period of rotation Tr 9.00 Tp=1.2; Tr=9
5 Time interval dt 0.0173 ="Tp="&Tp&"; Tr="&Tr
6 Suspension point vs. rot. axis xSh 0.00
7 Calculated therefrom
8 Angular frequency pendulum wP 5.24 =2*PI()/Tp
9 Angular frequency rotating disc wR -0.70 =-2*PI()/Td
10
c disc
ot. dis n rot.
. on r tylo o
ndu lum ace pend c e s
11 Pe Tr Tra

t) +xSh *t) t)
(wP * (wR wR*t) (wR* wR*t)
+dt COS xP*COS SIN( Ap*COS Ap*SIN(
12 =B14 =Ap* = =xP* = =
13 t xP xT yT xSt ySt
14 0.000 1.50 1.50 0.00 1.50 0.00
15 0.017 1.49 1.49 -0.02 1.50 -0.02
174 2.768 -0.52 0.18 0.49 -0.53 -1.40

Fig. 1.2 (S) Typical  structure of a spreadsheet, here, for the calculation of the trace of a Foucault
pendulum; rows 16–173 are hidden
10 1 Introduction

1 Sub Protoc() Range("C3") = Tp 8

2 r2 = 13 Cells(r2, 10) = Tp 9
3 Cells(r2, 10) = "Tp" Cells(r2, 11) = Range("D174") 10
4 Cells(r2, 11) = "xT" Cells(r2, 12) = Range("E174") 11
5 Cells(r2, 12) = "yT" r2 = r2 + 1 12
6 r2 = r2 + 1 Next Tp 13
7 For Tp = 1 To 9 End Sub 14

Fig. 1.3 (P) Log procedure, changes the period of the rotational motion in Fig. 1.2 (S) and logs
the values of x T and yT at the last instant of the calculation period

Below :

– values are calculated from the parameters and independent variables,

– the range C14:G174 contains five columnar vectors of length 171 with the names
in row 13,
– row 12 includes, in oblique orientation and in italics, the text of the formulas in the
bold-printed cells of the column below. If no cell is printed in bold, the formula
applies to the entire column.

Nomenclature
Python-typical terms are printed in the Courier font.
When excel-typical terms are referred to in the text, e.g., function names, they are
set in small caps; examples: if(condition; then; else) . Spreadsheet formulas
are given in the form B15 = [=B14 + dt]. The expression in rectangular brackets
corresponds exactly to the entry in the cell, including the equal sign. The equal sign
specifies that it is a formula that is in the cell.
Three types of figure are distinguished, two of which are denoted by suffixes, (S)
for spreadsheets, e.g., Fig. 1.2 (S), and (P) for the code of Visual Basic programs,
e.g., Fig. 1.3 (P). Figures without a suffix are line drawings or screenshots, e.g.,
Fig. 1.1.
Names given by the programmer are printed in the text in italics, e.g., f, d. Some-
times in excel, names are used that contain a dot, e.g., “T.1” or “x.2”. This is because
T1 and X2 are reserved for cell addresses. The associated variables are referenced
in the text without a dot, but with subscripts, i.e., as T 1 and x 2 .

Physical units
Sometimes, no physical units are specified in the axis labels of the figures. They can
then be deduced from the physical units of the parameters.

1.8 Getting Started with Python

You first have to install Anaconda with Python. There are many instructions on
the Internet as to how to achieve that, e.g., https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/ins
tall/windows/ or https://www.jcchouinard.com/install-python-with-anaconda-on-
windows/ (2020-09-02).
1.8 Getting Started with Python 11

Fig. 1.4 Window opened to create a new program file

When the Jupyter Notebook is opened, an overview of the filers and single
files on the localhost is shown. The programs used for this book are in a sub-filer
“Py PhExI” of the main filer “Python”. When we click Python/Py PhEx I, the
window in Fig. 1.4 pops up. To edit an already existing file, we have to click on
that file.
To create a new file, we open the list “New” and click on “Python 3”. A new
window pops up, opening a new file “Untitled22” with an empty program
cell “In [ ]”. The version in Fig. 1.5 is displayed after a small program has
been written into that cell. “In [5]” indicates that the 5th version of the code is
shown. This program is executed by clicking the button “Run”. The result of the
instruction print[x] is displayed in the output cell created automatically below
the program cell.

1.9 Skills to Be Trained

The different programming techniques are distributed over various exercises. For
the purpose of learning about them and how to revise them, the following lists
of keywords and broom rules have been compiled. They are meant to assist
the readers with the revision of subjects and, of course, their preparation for
examinations.

Spreadsheet operations (Exercise 2.3)

– Using cell addressing, absolute, relative, indirect

–  The dollar makes it absolute.
– Naming cell ranges and using the names in formulas
12 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.5 A program creating an output just below the program cell

– Using sliders to change cell contents

– Scaling and formatting XY scatter diagrams
– Creating smart legends by linking text and variables,  “Text” & Variables.
– Gamma structure of tables (Sect. 1.7.2)
–  Empty lines separate curves.
–  Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Magic “chord” to complete the entry of matrix functions
in excel (Exercise 2.6).

Python constructs (explained mainly in Exercises 2.4 and 2.5)

– Use of numpy arrays

– Ab-initio constructors np.arange, np.linspace
– Creating one and two-dimensional arrays with np.array (row vectors, column
vectors, matrices)
– Broadcasting row vectors, column vectors, and matrices together in algebraic
operations
– Slicing of lists
– List comprehension
– Creating smart legends by linking text and variables
– Applying a standard function to create scatter diagrams
– Creating animated figures (Exercise 6.2).

VBA-macros and Python instructions (Chap. 4)

The terms ‘routines’, ‘programs’, and ‘procedures’ are all used synonymously here.
The term ‘macro’ is for VBA only.
1.9 Skills to Be Trained 13

– For, if , Sub/def , basic structures of programming: loops, logical queries, subrou-

tines (Exercises 4.4 and 4.5)
– Loop2i, loops with a loop index and a running index incremented within the loop
(Exercises 4.2 and 4.8)
– Systematically modifying parameters and recording the results of the spreadsheet
calculations with rep-log procedures
– Processing and decoding texts for evaluation of the protocols of measuring
instruments (Exercises 4.8 and 4.9)
– Writing formulas into cells with procedures (Exercises 4.1 and 4.2)
– Creating user-defined functions and using them in spreadsheet calculations
(Exercise 4.9)
– Linking macros to control elements (command buttons, sliders) in spreadsheets
(Sect. 4.3.3).

Mathematical techniques
Ψ Imaging equation for lenses with plus and minus! (Exercise 3.2).

– Using the line equation constructively (Exercise 3.2)

– Calculating with vectors in the plane and displaying them in diagrams (Exercises
5.5, 5.6, 5.7)
– Calculating with matrices (Exercise 5.9)
– Converting polar coordinates and Cartesian coordinates into one another (Chap. 6)
– Ψ Doppler effect with plus and minus (Exercise 3.3)
– Differentiating (Exercise 5.3) and integrating (Exercise 5.4) numerically
– Weighted sum (Exercises 5.8 and 6.5) and weighted mean (Exercise 6.5).

Functions

– Properties of the exponential function (Exercise 3.4)

–  First, the tangent at x = 0! (Exercise 3.4)
–  Plus 1 becomes times e. (Exercise 3.4)
– Use of the logarithm function for different computing tasks (Exercise 9.3)
– Addition of sines and cosines: overtones and beats (Exercise 2.7)
–  Cos plus Cos equals mean value times half the difference. (Sum rule of cosines,
Exercise 2.7).

Integration of Newton’s equation of motion (Chap. 7)

–  Approximated average value instead of exact integral

– Four numerical methods (Sect. 7.1.2, Exercise 7.2):
– Euler
– Progress with look-ahead (our standard procedure in a spreadsheet calculation)
– Half-step
– Runge-Kutta of fourth order, Ψ half, half, whole, the halves count twice. (our
standard procedure as a Python function).
14 1 Introduction

Statistics (mainly Chap. 8)

–  Mostly, not always. Fundamental rule of statistical reasoning

–  If in doubt, count!
– Ψ Come to a decision! You may be wrong. (Exercise 9.6)
– Generating random numbers with specified distribution (Exercises 8.5, 8.6, 8.7)
– Ψ Chance is blind and checkered. (Exercise 8.3)
– Empirical frequency distribution (Exercise 8.2), in excel:  Always one more!
Yes, but of what and than what? In Python:  Always one less!
– Chi2 test for comparing theoretical and empirical frequency distributions (Exer-
cises 8.2, 8.8)
– Multiple repetitions of random experiments to test for uniform distribution of the
results of Chi2 tests (Exercise 8.2).

Evaluation of measurements (mainly Chaps. 9, 10)

–  We know everything and play stupid.

– Simulating measuring processes and evaluating the generated data sets statistically
(Exercises 9.2, 9.9).
– Mean, standard deviation,  Two within, one out of (the standard error range)
(Exercises 9.4 to 9.8)
– Specifying measurement uncertainty (Exercises 9.2, 9.7 and 9.8)
– Multiple repetition of random experiments to test for error rate (Exercises 9.4,
9.5 and 10.3)
– For only a few repetitions of measurements, taking the t-value into account
(Exercise 9.5).
–  Twice as good with four times the effort (Exercise 9.4).
– Error propagation (Exercises 9.7, 9.8), Ψ Calculate with variances, report the
C-spec error!
– Ψ From variance to confidence with Student’s t value (Exercise 9.8).
– Reducing measurement uncertainty by combining measurement series (Exercise
9.6).
–  Worse makes good even better.
– Linear regression, trend lines, coefficients with uncertainty (Sect. 10.2, 10.3 and
10.4).
– Applying non-linear regression using solver in excel and curve_fit in
Python (Exercises 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7).
– Decoding textual logs of measuring instruments and writing the relevant data into
tables using VBA macros or Python programs (Exercise 4.8).
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Young
Enchanted: A Romantic Story
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: The Young Enchanted: A Romantic Story

Author: Hugh Walpole

Release date: September 19, 2019 [eBook #60324]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David T. Jones, Al Haines, Paul Ereaut &

the
online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at
http://www.pgdpcanada.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG

ENCHANTED: A ROMANTIC STORY ***
 COPYRIGHT, 1921,

BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO MY FRIEND

LAURITZ MELCHIOR
AND, THROUGH HIM,
TO ALL MY FRIENDS
IN DENMARK
THIS BOOK
IS DEDICATED

MOTTO
to me over the past
Decillions.
There is no better than it
And now. What behaves well
In the past or behaves well
To-day is not such a wonder.
The wonder is always and
Always how there can be
A mean man or an infidel."
Walt Whitman.
 CONTENTS
BOOK I: TWO DAYS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Scarlet Feather 13
IIHenry Himself 28
III Millie 49
IV Henry's First Day 64
V The Three Friends 74
BOOK II: HIGH SUMMER
I Second Phase of the Adventure 83
IIMillie and Peter 97
III The Letters 113
IV The Cauldron 129
V Millie in Love 138
VI Henry at Duncombe 156
VII And Peter in London 163
BOOK III: FIRST BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY
I Romance and Cladgate 175
IILife, Death and Friendship 195
III Henry in Love 212
IV Death of Mrs. Trenchard 222
V Nothing is Perfect 229
VI The Return 236
VII Duncombe Says Good-Bye 247
VIII Here Courage is Needed 259
IX Quick Growth 268
BOOK IV: KNIGHT ERRANT
I Mrs. Tenssen's Mind is Made Up at Last 281
 IIHenry Meets Mrs. Westcott 286
III A Death and a Battle 292
IV Millie Recovers Her Breath 302
V And Finds Someone Worse Off Than Herself 309
VI Clare Goes 317
VII The Rescue 320
VIII The Moment 324
IX The Unknown Warrior 328
X The Beginning 333
BOOK I
TWO DAYS
 CHAPTER I
THE SCARLET FEATHER
I

Young Henry Trenchard, one fine afternoon in the Spring of 1920,

had an amazing adventure.
He was standing at the edge of Piccadilly Circus, just in front of
Swan and Edgar's where the omnibuses stopped. They now stop
there no longer but take a last frenzied leap around the corner into
Regent Street, greatly to the disappointment of many people who
still linger at the old spot and have a vague sense all the rest of the
day of having been cheated by the omnibus companies.
Henry generally paused there before crossing the Circus partly
because he was short-sighted and partly because he never became
tired of the spectacle of life and excitement that Piccadilly Circus
offered to him. His pince-nez that never properly fitted his nose,
always covered one eye more than the other and gave the interested
spectator a dramatic sense of suspense because they seemed to be
eternally at the crisis of falling to the ground, there to be smashed
into a hundred pieces—these pince-nez coloured his whole life. Had
he worn spectacles—large, round, moon-shaped ones as he should
have done—he would have seen life steadily and seen it whole, but
a kind of rather pathetic vanity—although he was not really vain—
prevented him from buying spectacles. The ill-balancing of these
pince-nez is at the back of all these adventures of his that this book
is going to record.
He waited, between the rushing of the omnibuses, for the right
moment in which to cross, and while he waited a curious fancy
occurred to him. This fancy had often occurred to him before, but he
had never confessed it to any one—not even to Millicent—not
because he was especially ashamed of it but because he was afraid
that his audience would laugh at him, and if there was one thing at
this time that Henry disliked it was to be laughed at.
He fancied, as he stood there, that his body swelled, and swelled; he
grew, like 'Alice in her Wonderland,' into a gigantic creature, his neck
shot up, his arms and his legs extended, his head was as high as the
barber's window opposite, then slowly he raised his arm—like
Gulliver, the crowds, the traffic, the buildings dwindled beneath him.
Everything stopped; even the sun stayed in its course and halted.
The flower-women around the central statue sat with their hands
folded, the policemen at the crossings waited, looking up to him as
though for orders—the world stood still. With a great gesture, with
all the sense of a mighty dramatic moment he bade the centre of the
Circus open. The Statue vanished and in the place where it had been
the stones rolled back, colour flamed into the sky, strange beautiful
music was heard and into the midst of that breathless pause there
came forth—what?
Alas, Henry did not know. It was here that the vision always stayed.
At the instant when the ground opened his size, his command, his
force collapsed. He fell, with a bang to the ground, generally to find
that some one was hitting him in the ribs, or stepping on his toes or
cursing him for being in the way.
Experience had, by this time, taught him that this always would be
so, but he never surrendered hope. One day the vision would fulfil
itself and then—well he did not exactly know what would happen
then.
To-day everything occurred as usual, and just as he came to ground
some one struck him violently in the back with an umbrella. The jerk
flung his glasses from his nose and he was only just in time to put
out his hands and catch them. As he did this some books that he
was carrying under his arm fell to the ground. He bent to pick them
up and then was at once involved in the strangest medley of books
and ankles and trouser-legs and the fringes of skirts. People pushed
him and abused him. It was the busiest hour of the day and he was
groping at the busiest part of the pavement. He had not had time to
replace his pince-nez on his nose—they were reposing in his
waistcoat pocket—and he was groping therefore in a darkened and
confusing world. A large boot stamped on his fingers and he cried
out; some one knocked off his hat, some one else prodded him in
the tenderest part of his back.
He was jerked on to his knees.
When he finally recovered himself and was once more standing, a
man again amongst men, his pince-nez on his nose, he had his
books under his arm, but his hat was gone, gone hopelessly,
nowhere to be seen. It was not a very new hat—a dirty grey and
shapeless—but Henry, being in the first weeks of his new
independence, was poor and a hat was a hat. He was supremely
conscious of how foolish a man may look without a hat, and he
hated to look foolish. He was also aware, out of the corner of his
eye, that there was a smudge on one side of his nose. He could not
tell whether it were a big or a little smudge, but from the corner of
his eye it seemed gigantic.
Two of the books that he was carrying were books given him for
review by the only paper in London—a small and insignificant paper
—that showed interest in his literary judgment, and but a moment
ago they had been splendid in their glittering and handsome
freshness.
Now they were battered and dirty and the corner of one of them
was shapeless. One of the sources of his income was the sum that
he received from a bookseller for his review copies; he would never
now receive a penny for either of these books.
There were tears in his eyes—how he hated the way that tears
would come when he did not want them! and he was muddy and
hatless and lonely! The loneliness was the worst, he was in a hostile
and jeering and violent world and there was no one who loved him.
They did not only not love him, they were also jeering at him and
this drove him at once to the determination to escape their company
at all costs. No rushing omnibuses could stop him now, and he was
about to plunge into the Piccadilly sea, hatless, muddy, bruised as he
was, when the wonderful adventure occurred.
All his life after he would remember that moment, the soft blue sky
shredded with pale flakes of rosy colour above him, the tall buildings
grey and pearl white, the massed colour of the flowers round the
statue, violets and daffodils and primroses, the whir of the traffic like
an undertone of some symphony played by an unearthly orchestra
far below the ground, the moving of the people about him as though
they were all hurrying to find their places in some pageant that was
just about to begin, the bells of St. James' Church striking five
o'clock and the soft echo of Big Ben from the far distance, the
warmth of the Spring sun and the fresh chill of the approaching
evening, all these common, everyday things were, in retrospect, part
of that wonderful moment as though they had been arranged for
him by some kindly benignant power who wanted to give the best
possible setting to the beginning of the great romance of his life.
He stood on the edge of the pavement, he made a step forward and
at that moment there arose, as it were from the very heart of the
ground itself, a stout and, to Henry's delicate sense, a repulsive
figure.
She was a woman wearing a round black hat and a black sealskin
jacket; her dress was of a light vivid green, her hair a peroxide
yellow and from her ears hung large glittering diamond earrings.
To a lead of the same bright green as her dress there was attached
a small sniffing and supercilious Pomeranian. She was stout and red-
faced: there was a general impression that she was very tightly
bound about beneath the sealskin jacket. Her green skirt was
shorter than her figure requested. Her thick legs showed fairly pink
beneath very thin silk black stockings; light brown boots very tightly
laced compressed her ankles until they bulged protestingly. All this,
however, Henry did not notice until later in the day when, as will
soon be shown, he had ample opportunity for undisturbed
observation.
His gaze was not upon the stout woman but upon the child who
attended her. Child you could not perhaps truthfully call her; she was
at any rate not dressed as a child.
In contrast with the woman her clothes were quiet and well made, a
dark dress with a little black hat whose only colour was a feather of
flaming red. It was this feather that first caught Henry's eye. It was
one of his misfortunes at this time that life was always suggesting to
him literary illusions.
When he saw the feather he at once thought of Razkolnikov's Sonia.
Perhaps not only the feather suggested the comparison. There was
something simple and innocent and a little apprehensive that came
at once from the girl's attitude, her hesitation as she stood just in
front of Henry, the glance that she flung upon the Piccadilly cauldron
before she stepped into it.
He saw very little of her face, although in retrospect, it was
impossible for him to believe that he had not seen her exactly as she
was, soul and body, from the first instant glimpse of her; her face
was pale, thin, her eyes large and dark, and even in that first
moment very beautiful.
He had not, of course, any time to see these things. He filled in the
picture afterwards. What exactly occurred was that the diamond
earrings flashed before him, the thick legs stepped into the space
between two omnibuses, there was a shout from a driver and for a
horrible moment it seemed that both the girl and the supercilious
Pomeranian had been run over. Henry dashed forward, himself only
narrowly avoided instant death, then, reaching, breathless and
confused, an island, saw the trio, all safe and well, moving towards
the stoutest of the flower-women. He also saw the stout woman
take the girl by the arm, shake her violently, say something to her in
obvious anger. He also saw the girl turn for an instant her head, look
back as though beseeching some one to help her and then follow
her green diamond-flashing dragon.
Was it this mute appeal that moved Henry? Was it Fate and Destiny?
Was it a longing that justice should be done? Was it the Romantic
Spirit? Was it Youth? Was it the Spirit of the Age? Every reader of
this book must make an individual decision.
The recorded fact is simply that Henry, hatless, muddy, battered and
dishevelled, his books still clutched beneath his arm, followed.
Following was no easy matter. It was, as I have already said, the
most crowded moment of the day. Beyond the statue and the
flower-woman a stout policeman kept back the Shaftesbury Avenue
traffic. Men and women rushed across while there was yet time and
the woman, the dog and the girl rushed also. As Henry had often
before noticed, it was the little things in life that so continually
checked his progress. Did he search for a house that he was visiting
for the first time, the numbers in that street invariably ceased just
before the number that he required. Was anything floating through
the air in the guise of a black smut or a flake of tangible dust,
certainly it would settle upon Henry's unconscious nose: was there
anything with which a human body might at any moment be
entangled, Henry's was the body inevitably caught.
So it was now. At the moment that he was in the middle of the
crossing, the stout policeman, most scornfully disregarding him,
waved on the expectant traffic. Down it came upon him, cars and
taxi-cabs, omnibuses and boys upon bicycles, all shouting and
blowing horns and screaming out of whistles. He had the barest
moment to skip back into the safe company of the flower-woman.
Skip back he did. It seemed to his over-sensitive nature that the
policeman sardonically smiled.
When he recovered from his indignant agitation there was of course
no sign of the flaming feather. At the next opportunity he crossed
and standing by the paper-stall and the Pavilion advertisements
gazed all around him. Up the street and down the street. Down the
street and up the street. No sign at all. He walked quickly towards
the Trocadero restaurant, crossed there to the Lyric Theatre, moved
on to the churchyard by the entrance to Wardour Street and then
gazed again.
What happened next was so remarkable and so obviously designed
by a kindly paternal providence that for the rest of his life he could
not quite escape from a conviction that fate was busied with him! a
happy conviction that cheered him greatly in lonely hours. Out from
the upper Circle entrance to the Apollo Theatre, so close to him that
only a narrow unoccupied street separated him, came the desired
three, the woman and the dog first, the girl following. They stood for
a moment, then the woman once more said something angrily to the
girl and they turned into Wardour Street. Now was all the world
hushed and still, the graves in the churchyard slept, a woman
leaning against a doorway sucked an orange, the sun slipped down
behind the crooked chimneys, saffron and gold stole into the pale
shadows of the sky and the morning and the evening were the First
Day.
Henry followed.

Around Wardour Street they hung all the shabby and tattered
traditions of the poor degraded costume romance, but in its actual
physical furniture there are not even trappings. There is nothing but
Cinema offices, public houses, barber shops, clothes shops and
shops with windows so dirty that you cannot tell what their trade
may be. It is a romantic street in no sense of the word; it is not a
kindly street nor a hospitable, angry words are forever echoing from
wall to wall and women scream behind shuttered windows.
Henry had no time to consider whether it were a romantic street or
no. The feather waved in front of him and he followed. He had by
now forgotten that he was hatless and dirty. A strangely wistful
eagerness urged him as though his heart were saying with every
beat: "Don't count too much on this. I know you expect a great deal.
Don't be taken in."
He did expect a great deal; with every step excitement beat higher.
Their sudden reappearance when he had thought that he had lost
them seemed to him the most wonderful omen. He believed in
omens, always throwing salt over his left shoulder when he spilt it
(which he continually did), never walking under ladders and of
course never lighting three cigarettes with one match.
Some way up Wardour Street on the left as you go towards Oxford
Street there is a public house with the happy country sign of the
Intrepid Fox. No one knows how long the Intrepid Fox has charmed
the inhabitants of Wardour Street into its dark and intricate recesses
—Tom Jones may have known it and Pamela passed by it and
Humphrey Clinker laughed in its doorway—no one now dare tell you
and no history book records its name. Only Henry will never until he
dies forget it and for him it will always be one of the most romantic
buildings in the world.
It stood at the corner of Wardour Street and a little thoroughfare
called Peter Street. Henry reached the Intrepid Fox just as the
Flaming Feather vanished beyond the rows of flower and vegetable
stalls that thronged the roadway. Peter Street it seemed was the
market of the district; beneath the lovely blue of the evening the
things on the stall are picturesque and touching, even old clothes,
battered hats, boots with gaping toes and down-trodden heels, and
the barrow of all sorts with dirty sheets of music and old paper-
covered novels and tin trays and cheap flower-painted vases. In
between these booths the feather waved. Henry pursuing stumbled
over the wooden stands of the barrows, nearly upset an old watery-
eyed woman from her chair—and arrived just in time to see the
three pursued vanish through a high faded green door that had the
shabby number in dingy red paint of Number Seven.
Number Seven was, as he at once perceived, strangely situated. At
its right was the grimy thick-set exterior of "The City of London"
public house, on its left there was a yard roofed in by a wooden
balcony like the balcony of a country inn, old and rather pathetic
with some flower-pots ranged along it and three windows behind it;
the yard and the balcony seemed to belong to another and simpler
world than the grim ugliness of the "City of London" and her
companions. The street was full of business and no one had time to
consider Henry. In this neighbourhood the facts that he was without
a hat and needed a wash were neither so unusual nor so humorous
as to demand comment.
He stood and looked. This was the time for him to go home. His
romantic adventure was now logically at an end. Did he ring the bell
of Number Seven he had nothing whatever to say if the door were
opened.
The neighbourhood was not suited to his romantic soul. The shop
opposite to him declaring itself in large white letters to be the "Paris
Fish Dinner" and announcing that it could provide at any moment
"Fish fried in the best dripping" was the sort of shop that destroyed
all Henry's illusions. He should, at this point, have gone home. He
did not. He crossed the road. The black yard, smelling of dogs and
harness, invited him in. He stumbled in the dusk against a bench
and some boxes but no human being seemed to be there. As his
eyes grew accustomed to the half light he saw at the back of the
yard a wooden staircase that vanished into blackness. Still moving as
though ordered by some commanding Providence he walked across
to this and started to climb. It turned a corner and his head struck
sharply a wooden surface that suddenly, lifting with his pressure a
little, revealed itself as a trap-door. Henry pushed upwards and
found himself, as Mrs. Radcliffe would say "in a gloomy passage
down which the wind blew with gusty vehemence."
In truth the wind was not blowing nor was anything stirring. The
trap-door fell back with a heavy swaying motion and a creaking sigh
as though some one quite close at hand had suddenly fainted. Henry
walked down the passage and found that it led to a dusky thick-
paned window that overlooked a square just behind the yard
through which he had come. This was a very small and dirty square,
grimy houses overlooking it and one thin clothes-line cutting the
light evening sky now light topaz with one star and a cherry-
coloured baby moon. To the right of this window was another
heavily curtained and serving no purpose as it looked out only upon
the passage. Beside this window Henry paused. It was formed by
two long glass partitions and these were not quite fastened. From
the room beyond came voices, feminine voices, one raised in violent
anger. A pause—from below in the yard some one called. A step was
ascending the stair.
From within voices again and then a sound not to be mistaken.
Some one was slapping somebody's face and slapping it with
satisfaction. A sharp cry—and Henry pushing back the window,
stepped forward, became entangled in curtains of some heavy
clinging stuff, flung out his arms to save himself and fell for the
second time within an hour and on this occasion into the heart of a
company that was most certainly not expecting him.

II

He had fallen on his knees and when he stumbled to his feet his left
heel was still entangled with the curtain. He nearly fell again, but
saved himself with a kind of staggering, suddenly asserted dignity, a
dignity none the easier because he heard the curtain tear behind
him as he pulled himself to his feet.
When he was standing once more and able to look about him the
scene that he slowly collected for himself was a simple one—a very
ugly room dressed entirely it seemed at first sight in bright salmon
pink, the walls covered with photographs of ladies and gentlemen
for the most part in evening dress. There were two large pink pots
with palms, an upright piano swathed in pink silk, a bamboo
bookcase, a sofa with pink cushions, a table on which tea was laid,
the Pomeranian and—three human beings.
The three human beings were in various attitudes of transfigured
astonishment exactly as though they had been lent for this special
occasion by Madame Tussaud. There was the lady with the green
dress, the girl with the flaming feather and the third figure was a
woman, immensely stout and hung with bracelets, pendants, chains
and lockets so that when her bosom heaved (it was doing that now
quite frantically) the noise that she made resembled those Japanese
glass toys that you hang in the window for the wind to make tinkling
music with them. The only sounds in the room were this deep
breathing and this rattling, twitting, tittering agitation.
Even the Pomeranian was transfixed. Henry felt it his duty to speak
and he would have spoken had he not been staring at the girl as
though his eyes would never be able to leave her face again. It was
plain enough that it was she who had been slapped a moment ago.
There was a red mark on her cheek and there were tears in her
eyes.
To Henry she was simply the most beautiful creature ever made in
heaven and sent down to this sinful earth by a loving and kindly
God. He had thought of her as a child when he first saw her, he
thought of her as a child again now, a child who had, only last night,
put up her hair—under the hat with the flaming feather, that hair of
a vivid shining gold was trying to escape into many rebellious
directions. The slapping may have had something to do with that. It
was obvious at the first glance that she was not English—
Scandinavian perhaps with the yellow hair, the bright blue eyes and
the clear pink-and-white skin. Her dress of some mole-coloured
corduroy, very simple, her little dark hat, set off her vivid colour
exquisitely. She shone in that garish vulgar room with the light and
purity of some almost ghostly innocence and simplicity. She was
looking at Henry and he fancied that in spite of the tears that were
still in her eyes a smile hovered at the corners of her mouth.
"Well, sir?" said the lady in green. She was not really angry Henry at
once perceived and afterwards he flattered himself because he had
from the very first discovered one of the principal features of that
lady's "case"—namely, that she would never feel either anger or
disapproval—at any member of the masculine gender entering any
place whatever, in any manner whatever, where she might happen to
be. No, it was not anger she showed, nor even curiosity—rather a
determination to turn this incident, bizarre and sudden though it
might be, to the very best and most profitable advantage.
"You see," said Henry, "I was in the passage outside and thought I
heard some one call out. I did really."
"Well you were mistaken, that's what you were," said the green lady.
"I must say——! Of all the things!"
"I'm really very sorry," said Henry. "I've never done such a thing
before. It must seem very rude."
"Well it is rude," said the green lady. "If you were to ask me to be as
polite as possible and not to hurt anybody's feelings, I couldn't say
anything but that. All the same there's no offence taken as I see
there was none meant!"
She smiled; the gleam of a distant gold tooth flashed through the air.
"If there's anything I can do to apologize," said Henry, encouraged
by the smile, but hating the smile more than ever.
"No apologies necessary," said the green lady. "Tenssen's my name.
Danish. This is Mrs. Armstrong—My daughter Christina——"
As she spoke she smiled at Henry more and more affectionately. Had
it not been for the girl he would have fled long before; as it was,
with a horrible sickening sensation that in another moment she
would stretch out a fat arm and draw him towards her, he held his
ground.
"What about a cup of tea?" she said. At that word the room seemed
to spring to life. Mrs. Armstrong moved heavily to the table and sat
down with the contented abandonment of a cow safe at last in its
manger. The girl also sat down at the opposite end of the table from
her mother.
"It's very good of you," said Henry, hesitating. "The fact is that I'm
not very clean. I had an accident in Piccadilly and lost my hat."
"That's nothing," said Mrs. Tenssen, as though falling down in
Piccadilly were part of every one's daily programme.
"Come along now and make yourself at home."
He drew towards her, fascinated against his will by the shrill green of
her dress, the red of her cheeks and the strangely intimate and
confident stare with which her eyes, slightly green, enveloped him.
As he had horribly anticipated her fat boneless fingers closed upon
his arm.
He sat down.
There was a large green teapot painted with crimson roses. The tea
was very strong and had been obviously standing for a long time.
Conversation of a very bright kind began between Mrs. Tenssen and
Mrs. Armstrong.
"I'm sure you'll understand," said Mrs. Tenssen, smiling with a rich
and expensive glitter, "that Mrs. Armstrong is my oldest friend. My
oldest and my best. What I always say is that others may
misunderstand me, but Ruby Armstrong never. If there's one alive
who knows me through and through it's Mrs. Armstrong."
"Yes," said Henry.
"You mustn't believe all the kind things she says about me. One's
partial to a friend of a lifetime, of course, but what I always say is if
one isn't partial to a friend, who is one going to be partial to?"
Mrs. Armstrong spoke, and Henry almost jumped from his chair so
unexpectedly base and masculine was her voice.
"Ada expresses my feelings exactly," she said.
"I'm sure that some," went on Mrs. Tenssen, "would say that it's
strange, if not familiar, asking a man to take tea with one when one
doesn't even know his name, and his entrance into one's family was
so peculiar; but what I always say is that life's short and there's no
time to waste."
"My name's Henry Trenchard," said Henry, blushing.
"I had a friend once" (Mrs. Tenssen always used the word "friend"
with a weight and seriousness that gave it a very especial
importance), "a Mr. William Trenchard. He came from Beckenham.
You remember him, Ruby?"
"I do," said Mrs. Armstrong. "And how good you were to him too! No
one will ever know but myself how truly good you were to that man,
Ada. Your kind heart led you astray there, as it has done often
enough before."
Mrs. Tenssen nodded her head reminiscently. "He wasn't all he
should have been," she said. "But there, one can't go on regretting
all the actions of the past, or where would one be?"
She regarded Henry appreciatively. "He's a nice boy," she said to
Mrs. Armstrong. "I like his face. I'm a terrible woman for first
impressions, and deceived though I've been, I still believe in them."
"He's got kind eyes," said Mrs. Armstrong, blowing on her tea to cool
it.
"Yes, they're what I'd call thinking eyes. I should say he's clever."
"Yes, he looks clever," said Mrs. Armstrong.
"And I like his smile," said Mrs. Tenssen.
"Good-natured I should say," replied Mrs. Armstrong.
This direct and personal comment floating quite naturally over his
self-conscious head embarrassed Henry terribly. He had never been
discussed before in his own presence as though he didn't really
exist. He didn't like it; it made him extremely uneasy. He longed to
interrupt and direct the conversation into a safer channel, but every
topic of interest that occurred to him seemed unsuitable. The
weather, the theatres, politics, Bolshevism, high prices, food, house
decoration, literature and the Arts—all these occurred to him but
were dismissed at once as unlikely to succeed. Moreover, he was
passionately occupied with his endeavour to catch the glimpses of
the girl at the end of the table. He did not wish to look at her
deliberately lest that should embarrass her. He would not, for the
world bring her into any kind of trouble. The two women whom he
hated with increasing vehemence with every moment that passed
were watching like vultures waiting for their prey. (This picture and
image occurred quite naturally to Henry.) The glimpses that he did
catch of the soft cheek, the untidy curls, the bend of the head and
the curve of the neck fired his heart to a heroism, a purity of
purpose, a Quixotism that was like wine in his head, so that he could
scarcely hear or see. He would have liked to have the power to at
that very instant jump up, catch her in his arms and vanish through
the window. As it was he gulped down his tea and crumbled a little
pink cake.
As the meal proceeded the air of the little room became very hot
and stuffy. The two ladies soon fell into a very absorbing
conversation about a gentleman named Herbert whose salient
features were that he had a double chin and was careless about
keeping engagements. The conversation passed on then to other
gentlemen, all of whom seemed in one way or another to have their
faults and drawbacks, and to all of whom Mrs. Tenssen had been,
according to Mrs. Armstrong, quite marvellously good and kind.
The fool that Henry felt!
Here was an opportunity that any other man would have seized. He
could but stare and gulp and stare again. The girl sat, her plate and
cup pushed aside, her hands folded, looking before her as though
into some mirror or crystal revealing to her the strangest vision—and
as she looked unhappiness crept into her eyes, an unhappiness so
genuine that she was quite unconscious of it.
Henry leant across the table to her.
"I say, don't . . . don't!" he whispered huskily.
She turned to him, smiling.
"Don't what?" she asked. There was the merest suggestion of a
foreign accent behind her words.
"Don't be miserable. I'll do anything—anything. I followed you here
from Piccadilly. I heard her slapping you."
"Oh, I want to get away!" she whispered breathlessly. "Do you think
I can?"
"You can if I help you," Henry answered. "How can I see you?"
"She keeps me here . . ."

Their whispers had been low, but the eager conversation at the
other end of the table suddenly ceased.
"I'm afraid I must be going now," said Henry rising and facing Mrs.
Tenssen. "It was very good of you to give me tea."
"Come again," said Mrs. Tenssen regarding him once more with that
curiously fixed stare, a stare like a glass of water in which floated a
wink, a threat, a cajoling, and an insult.
"We'll be glad to see you. Just take us as you find us. Come in the
right way next time. There's a bell at the bottom of the stairs."
Mrs. Armstrong laughed her deep bass laugh.
He shook hands with the two women, shuddering once more at Mrs.
Tenssen's boneless fingers. He turned to the girl. "Good-bye," he
said. "I'll come again."
"Yes," she answered, not looking at him but at her mother at the
other side of the table. The stairs were dark and smelt of fish and
patchouli. He stumbled down them and let himself out into Peter
Street. The evening was blue with a lovely stir in it as in running
water. The booths were crowded, voices filled the air. He escaped
into Shaftesbury Avenue as Hänsel and Gretel escaped from the
witch's cottage. He was in love for the first time in his young, self-
centred life. . . .
 CHAPTER II
HENRY HIMSELF
In the fifth chapter of the second part of Henry Galleon's Three
Magicians there is this passage (The Three Magicians appeared in
1892):

When he looked at the Drydens, father, daughter, and son, he

would wonder, as he had often in earlier days wondered, why
writers on English character so resolutely persisted in omitting
the Dryden type from their definitions? These analyses were
perhaps too sarcastic, too cynical to include anything as artless,
as simple as the Dryden character without giving the whole case
away . . . and yet it was, he fancied in that very character that
the whole strength and splendour of the English spirit persisted.
Watching Cynthia and Tony Dryden he was reminded of a
picture in a fairy-tale book read and loved by him in his youth,
now forgotten to the very name of its author, lingering only with
a few faded colours of the original illustration. He fancied that it
had been a book of Danish fairy romances. . . . This picture of
which he thought was a landscape—Dawn was breaking over a
great champigné of country, country that had hills and woods
and forests, streams and cottages all laid out in that detailed
fancy that, as a child, he had loved so deeply. The sun was
rising over the hill; heavy dark clouds were rolling back on to
the horizon and everywhere the life of the day, fresh in the
sparkling daylight was beginning. The creatures of the night
were vanishing; dragons with scaly tails were creeping back
reluctantly into their caves, giants were brandishing their iron
clubs defiantly for the last time before the rising sun; the Hydras
and Gryphons and Five-Headed Tortoises were slinking into the
dusky forests, deep into the waters of the green lakes the slimy
Three-Pronged Alligators writhed deep down into the filth that
was their proper home.
The flowers were thick on the hills, and in the valleys, the birds
sang, butterflies and dragon-flies flashed against the blue, the
smoke curled up from the cottage chimneys and over all the
world was hung a haze of beauty, of new life and the wonder of
the coming day.
In the foreground of this picture were two figures, a girl and a
boy, and the painter, clumsy and amateurish, though his art may
have been, had with the sincerity and fervour of his own belief
put into their eyes all their amazement and wonder at the
beauty of this new world.
They saw it all; the dragons and the gryphons, the heavy clouds
rolling back above the hill were not hidden from them; that they
would return they knew. The acceptance of the whole of life
was in their eyes. Their joy was in all of it; their youth made
them take it all full-handed. . . .
I have thought of them sometimes—I think of the Drydens now
—as the Young Enchanted. And it seems to me that England is
especially the country of such men and women as these. All the
other peoples of the world carry in their souls age and
sophistication. They are too old for that sense of enchantment,
but in England that wonder that is so far from common sense
and yet is the highest kind of common sense in the world has
always flourished. It is not imagination; the English have less
imagination than any other race, it is not joy of life nor animal
spirits, but the child's trust in life before it has grown old
enough for life to deceive it. I think Adam and Eve before the
Fall were English.
That sense of Enchantment remains with the English long after
it dies with the men and women of other nations, perhaps
because the English have not the imagination to perceive how
 subtle, how dangerous, how cynical life can be. Their art comes
straight from their Enchantment. The novels of Fielding and
Scott and Thackeray and Dickens and Meredith, the poetry of
Wordsworth and Keats and Shelley, the pictures of Hogarth and
Constable and Turner. The music of Purcell, the characters of
Nelson and Wellington and Gordon. . . .
And think what that sense of Enchantment might do for them if
only their background would change. For generations gone that
has not moved. One day when the earthquake comes and the
upheaval and all the old landmarks are gone and there is a new
world of social disorder and tumbling indecency for their startled
gaze to rest upon then you will see what these children of
Enchantment will do!

So much, for Galleon who is already now so shortly after his death
looked upon as an old sentimental fogy. Sentimental? Why certainly.
What in the world could be more absurd than his picture of the
English gazing wide-eyed at the wonder of life? They of all peoples!
And yet he was no fool. He was a Cosmopolitan. He had lived as
much in Rome, in Paris, in Vicenza, as in London. And why should I
apologize for one of the greatest artists England possesses? Other
times, other names . . . and you can't catch either Henry Trenchard
or Millicent—no, nor Peter either—and I venture to say that you
cannot catch that strange, restless, broken, romantic, aspiring,
adventurous, disappointing, encouraging, enthralling, Life-is-just-
beginning-at-last Period in which they had these adventures simply
with the salt of sheer Realism—not salt enough for that Bird's tail.
I should like to find that little picture of Henry Galleon's fairy book
and place it as a frontispiece to this story. But Heaven alone knows
where that old book has gone to! It was perhaps Galleon's own
invention; he was a queer old man and went his own way and had
his own fancies, possessions that many writers to-day are chary of
keeping because they have been told on so many occasions by so
many wise professors that they've got to stick to the Truth. Truth?