Of course, the subject should have been in English. Indeed
the book is in English as well. It can be found at:

http://www.motionmountain.net

The text adds a new section on nuclear physics
that includes the story of radioactivity, a MRI scan of humans making love
and the dream of grand unification. The present 14th revision also adds
more figures on special relativity, a short explanation of k calculus, the
paradox of the relativistic submarine, a photograph and description of how
some caterpillars shoot away their faecal matter, a photograph of a
basilisk running over water, Stowe's periodic table of the elements, a
beautiful picture of the analemma, references to monadology, the question
why birds are not usually seen on high voltage lines, the question whether
the moon is larger or smaller than the nail of your thumb at the end of
your extended arm, the proof that Peary did not reach the north pole, and
much more. Many photographs and drawings have been added, the graphical
presentation reworked and several hundred challenge
solutions have been added. (Tell me which ones you want next!)

For all fields of physics the newest research results and the main
unanswered questions are presented. The text remains a structured walk
through classical physics, relativity, quantum theory and unification. In
total, the text aims to give an overview of what motion is and what it can
effect. The accent on surprises and thought-provoking puzzles has been
kept. It will please both readers who open the text at random and
those who read it systematically. Thank you to everybody who has sent
criticisms, corrections and suggestions. Enjoy!

Christoph Schiller
chri_schiller @ yahoo . com


P.S. In physics texts, figures take the biggest part of the budget - both
in time and in money. Any help on (preferably colour postscript) images to
be added to the text (with permission of course) is much appreciated. Such
help will allow me to concentrate on the writing and make sure that the
text can continue to be free for all readers throughout the world.

(Christoph Schiller) wrote in message . com...
Of course, the subject should have been in English. Indeed
the book is in English as well. It can be found at:

http://www.motionmountain.net


I find it incredible that someone could invest the time and effort
required to construct a website such as the above, yet in hundreds of
pages not to address the fundamental concepts of physics even once.

Harry C.

Harry Conover wrote:
(Christoph Schiller) wrote in message . com...

Of course, the subject should have been in English. Indeed
the book is in English as well. It can be found at:

http://www.motionmountain.net



I find it incredible that someone could invest the time and effort
required to construct a website such as the above, yet in hundreds of
pages not to address the fundamental concepts of physics even once.

Harry C.
Perhaps you could state what you mean by 'fundamental concepts of
physics', because I am puzzled? Has physics changed since I took it in
the 60s It covers conservation of energy, classical motion, special
relativity, generaly relativity, Electromagnetism.

David

(Harry Conover) wrote in message news:

http://www.motionmountain.net


I find it incredible that someone could invest the time and effort
required to construct a website such as the above, yet in hundreds of
pages not to address the fundamental concepts of physics even once.

Harry C.


The whole text is about the fundamental concepts of physics. Just
let me know what you think is missing, and I will add it in the next version.


C. Schiller

The (Harry Conover) wrote:

(Christoph Schiller) wrote in message . com...
Of course, the subject should have been in English. Indeed
the book is in English as well. It can be found at:

http://www.motionmountain.net

I find it incredible that someone could invest the time and effort
required to construct a website such as the above, yet in hundreds of
pages not to address the fundamental concepts of physics even once.

Isn't it equally amazing that you managed to read these hundreds of
pages in a timespan of five hours? :-)


--
If your divots continuously travel farther than your ball, consider
reading as a pastime.

Ahem!

Physics text books should not have pretty illustrations. They should
have lots of equations. Intermediate steps should always be missing so
that the professor can have the opportunity to say, "let the
derivation be an exercise for the student".

Physics should be difficult enough that even the best students will
need to spend at least 4 hours per problem. Physics and Pain should by
synonymous, just as they were in the 60's at UCLA. Not all the
problems should have solutions. This prepares the student for life.

Dr Image Nius
Professor of Warp Field Studies
James T. Kirk University
Titan Colony, Alpha Quadrant

Try Optical Aberration Coefficients by Buchdahl.

Subscripts, Superscripts both in front of and behind most of the
variables.


(robert egri) wrote:

Acme Optics wrote in message . ..
Ahem!

Physics text books should not have pretty illustrations. They should
have lots of equations. Intermediate steps should always be missing so
that the professor can have the opportunity to say, "let the
derivation be an exercise for the student".

Physics should be difficult enough that even the best students will
need to spend at least 4 hours per problem. Physics and Pain should by
synonymous, just as they were in the 60's at UCLA. Not all the
problems should have solutions. This prepares the student for life.

Dr Image Nius
Professor of Warp Field Studies
James T. Kirk University
Titan Colony, Alpha Quadrant

Schiller's book is a gem. But he did not follow the basic laws of
optics textbook writing. When you write a book on optics, make sure
that you use notation that is easily misprinted like triple primes, or
select coordinate fonts that do not match your drawings. The drawings
themselves, if there are any, let's just be abstract, shall we, should
be at least three pages from the text that is referring to. That'll
teach'em a lesson. Or how about describing the aberration function,
with variable points like P, P', then also with another pair having
overbars on them and then have the plot show Q and Q' and never define
or even plot what Pbar and P'bar would be, etc. It is also helpful to
emphasize that the aberration function derived so far refers to the
Petzval surface and then move on to the aberration relative to the
Gaussian image all the while implying that you have been talking about
the Gaussian image and never say what the Petzval image itself would
be, etc. That'll teach'em a lesson, the suckers... Or, declare in the
1st chapter the image coordinates will always have primes unlike the
object coordinates, then when you go to derive the Seidel aberration,
without any prior warning drop the primes in the image plane, "to
simplify notation" use unprimed capital letters and then, well, you
know the rest of the story, only a stiff glass of gin can help the
unwary. Or is that illegal in college dorms, nowadays?

(Harry Conover) wrote:

Acme Optics wrote in message . ..
Ahem!

Physics text books should not have pretty illustrations. They should
have lots of equations. Intermediate steps should always be missing so
that the professor can have the opportunity to say, "let the
derivation be an exercise for the student".

Physics should be difficult enough that even the best students will
need to spend at least 4 hours per problem. Physics and Pain should by
synonymous, just as they were in the 60's at UCLA. Not all the
problems should have solutions. This prepares the student for life.

Dr Image Nius
Professor of Warp Field Studies
James T. Kirk University
Titan Colony, Alpha Quadrant

I can't agree with you that "physics and pain should be synomous", but
I will agree with you that the author of this online text fails to
present the essence of basic physics, if indeed he holds an education
in the subject.

I will concede that the presentation and visuals are well done, but
this is so very typical of today's Coffee Table Books, that is, all
style and no content.

Regarding 4 hour problems...I seriously doubt that anyone except other
physicists here will even relate to what you mean. Still, any
physicist here who has gone though a course in classical or
theoretical mecahnics will be familiar with this. Hell, a four hour
problem was one of the easier ones!

Do you remember the problems that were labeled as being from the
'Oxford' series? Damn, some of them were tough, yet they still
mysteriously re-appeared as at least one problem on a mid-term or
final exam. Separated those who did their homework from those who had
not!

Do you remember the one about the pocket watch? It concerned a watch
having a case mass of M, and a coaxially located balance wheel with a
mass of m. The problem appeared simple, but was anything but. It was
simple to write the relatinship between the time kept by the watch
when the case was constrained not to move vs. that when it was
unconstrained and free to react. I'm probably a bit dense, but it must
have taken me 12-hours to solve that one.


Harry C.

I far preferred the one that went like, "Apply Kickoffs's circuit law
to a chicken coop" or " In a lab at UCLA one ounce of matter and one
ounce of anti matter are separated by one cm. At t=0 the magnetic
vacuum bottles holding each fail. The sufficient head start would be:

San Diego
Mexico City
Panama City
Calisto
Pluto."

AO,

Acme Optics wrote:

...


I far preferred the one that went like, "Apply Kickoffs's circuit
law to a chicken coop" or " In a lab at UCLA one ounce of matter
and one ounce of anti matter are separated by one cm. At t=0 the
magnetic vacuum bottles holding each fail. The sufficient head
start would be:

San Diego
Mexico City
Panama City
Calisto
Pluto."


Yeah. One should never lose track of the practical side of physics.

Do you mean neutral antimatter? Anyway, since I assume that this lab
at UCLA, hypothetical though it is, is composed entirely of matter, so
the "one ounce of matter" part (what's an ounce, by the way?) is kind
of irrelevant.

My guess is that Mexico City would be safe, but there'd might be a
pretty high gamma ray flux in the vicinity of San Diego.

RRS

Well on page 53 eqn 3, he has position as a function of time, given
initial position, velocity and acceleration.

David



Harry Conover wrote:

Paul van Walree wrote in message . ..

The (Harry Conover) wrote:


(Christoph Schiller) wrote in message . com...

Of course, the subject should have been in English. Indeed
the book is in English as well. It can be found at:

http://www.motionmountain.net


I find it incredible that someone could invest the time and effort
required to construct a website such as the above, yet in hundreds of
pages not to address the fundamental concepts of physics even once.

Isn't it equally amazing that you managed to read these hundreds of
pages in a timespan of five hours? :-)


Actually, I scanned its content looking for key relationships,
formulas, etc. that form the very basis of physics. Surprisingly, I
found none.

Perhaps you can point out to me where the basic concepts/principles of
mechanics are found, plus heat, light, electricity, etc.