September 23, 2005

Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality

Images P 0935218084.01. Aa240 Sclzzzzzzz I took a physics class in college. About 300 other students were in the class with me. The professor was a skinny old guy with a severe stoop. From the side, his body made a question mark shape.

After the first week, I figured out that he was just going through each example in the book, and offered nothing in the way of additional enlightenment beyond the text. I stopped going to class and read the book on my own. I don't remember the book very well. I do remember that it was boring, and that I didn't feel as if I understood physics very well after reading it. Fortunately, the professor's test questions were nearly identical to the examples in the book (he usually just changed the values), so I got an A in the class.

A few years later, I saw a copy of Thinking Physics, and was drawn to the playful illustrations on the cover. The book had a loving, handmade quality to it. Flipping through it, I saw that it was written in the form of physics puzzles. I bought the book, and in the course of a couple of weeks, I developed a true feel for Newtonian physics. I understood, on an intuitive level, the difference between force, energy, and work. The how and why of calculus became clear. Interestingly, most of the questions in the book don't require that you pull out a pencil I'll and paper. They just require you to visualize and think.

Check out the reviews on Amazon. Everyone gives this book a solid five stars. And they're well deserved. Link /