"Motion Mountain" - free physics e-textbook

[Colin Dunstan]

How does one empty a bottle as rapidly as possible? What are the highest force and power in nature? How does one connect water pipes to a turning wheel? What are the dangers of a can of beans? What is the single page of unsolved problems in fundamental physics? Christoph Schiller answers these questions in Motion Mountain - The Adventure of Physics, a free 1250-pages physics e-textbook. All he asks in return is your feedback e-mailed back to him. For more details and download instruction checkout his site.

[via Boing Boing]

[motionmountain]

I have put the new, twentieth edition of my freely
downloadable physics textbook in pdf form on

http://www.motionmountain.eu

Over 1380 pages lead through the whole of physics, from
mechanics to relativity, electrodynamics, thermodynamics,
quantum theory, nuclear physics and unification. Many
explanations across the text have been improved, often
triggered by the input of readers across the internet.
Thank you to all of them.

The twentieth edition now contains a dozen animations
and films: generation and motion of electromagnetic waves,
leap-frogging vortex rings, jumping snakes, the propagation
of solitons and dromions, growing ice crystals,
rotating atomic orbitals, the actin-myosin system
in muscles in action, and Dirac's belt trick.

The twentieth edition also introduces robots that walk on
water, explains how to observe the polarization of light with
the unaided human eye (in the same way as honey bees do),
includes a clearer explanation of the curl of a function,
introduces dromions and the challenge to observe them in
everyday life, shows how to produce floating plasma clouds
similar to ball lighting, improves the explanation of quantum
mechanics, tells more about the Galilean satellites, tells
how to compare the density of the Moon and the Sun by looking
at the sea, mentions the world records for running backwards
and the attempts to break the speed sailing record, tells in
more detail how to learn from books with as little effort as
possible, includes thermographic images, shows a photograph
of each element, explains more clearly the generation of
electromagnetic radiation, presents the polarized car
headlight problem, and includes many new puzzles.

Enjoy the reading!

Christoph Schiller

[L1Wulf]

This looks awesome. I turned my niece on to some basic physics pretty early in her childhood--some stuff she genuinely understood, others I knew was over her head. The coolest part was hearing her explain her newfound understanding of those harder concepts over the last couple years. If Colin's post is any indication of the contents, we (niece and I) thank you for posting this and I'll be sure to fire off an email to Mr. Schiller.

edit: looks like the .net and .eu sites are down (redirect to same site?). I'll have to return and try again later!

[Azayzel]

I think it's amazing that someone would post a 1280-page eBook (updated even!) to the community for free. Thanks for all the hard work you put into it, for making it available for all of us to "refresh" our memories, and for providing learning tools for people who may not otherwise have access to the information.

[motionmountain]

The new, twenty-first edition of the freely
downloadable physics textbook is available on

http://www.motionmountain.eu

Almost 1500 pages lead through the whole of physics, from
mechanics to relativity, electrodynamics, thermodynamics,
quantum theory, nuclear physics, astrophysics and
unification. Over hundred new figures and tables, and
numerous explanations have been added, with many
examples from animals, plants and machines.

The twenty-first edition now explains why the speed of
light is too slow to speculate with success on the stock
exchange, adds the second-level bear fur colour puzzle and
the young mother puzzle, presents the nearest place with
a pressure permanently lower than that of the atmosphere,
adds the puzzle about the horse and the snail on a rubber,
tells more about metamaterials, adds some simple chemical
puzzles, presents what incredible things on atomic layers
one can discover using a pencil and sticky tape, tells
more on biological rhythms and clocks, explains how to
observe the rotation of the Earth in any classroom after
two seconds of observation, shows an electric effect
observed on many playgrounds, shows the beauty of bursting
soap bubbles and bouncing tennis balls, explains how it is
possible to observe the motion of single, isolated
electrons, gives more details on the shape of the proton,
and tells how to build the simplest possible radio
control system.

The first 360 pages are available also in French, due to
the great work of Benoit Clenet, and can be downloaded from
the bienvenue page.

A wiki open to everybody now keeps track of misprints
and suggestions.

Enjoy the reading!

Christoph Schiller

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Colin Dunstan

How does one empty a bottle as rapidly as possible?

I thought I knew all the moderators here. Who is Colin Dunstan?

[HarryT]

Look at the date on the post, Nate. Colin still drops in on us from time to time, but is no longer an active board member.

[motionmountain]

The new, twenty-second edition of the freely
downloadable physics textbook
is available on

http://www.motionmountain.net

Over 1600 pages show that physics is more fun than making
love. They lead through the whole of physics, from
mechanics to thermodynamics, relativity, electrodynamics,
quantum theory, nuclear physics, astrophysics and
unification. The text promises to be fascinating and
challenging on every page.

The twenty-second edition now explains how it is possible
to plunge a bare hand into molten lead, includes a film of
an oscillating quartz inside a watch, explains how it is
possible to type a letter by controlling a computer
with thought alone, includes a film of a solar flare,
explains the fifteen ways that colours appear
in rocks plants and animals, explains the connection
between cats and gauge theory, adds more ways in which
the human eye invents colours that are not there, includes
a list of laser types and applications, includes many
images of crystals, explains how physics Plotinus
and christianity come together to show that the universe
and god are one and the same, adds the handcuff puzzle
and several other puzzles, explains how jet pilots
frighten civilians with sonic superbooms produced by
fighter planes, presents the most beautiful and precise
sundial available today, adds a simple photographic
proof that the Earth is larger than the Moon, improves
the presentation of elementary particle physics, adds
a photo of a red rainbow, gives the latest discoveries
on the Galileo trial, presents a fascinating mathematical
aspect of Ohm's law, states the hardest open math problem
that you can explain to your grandmother, adds photographs
of levitation, and much more.

Over 50 new illustrations and 100 new pages have been added.
More than 200 women and men have helped with suggestions and
material: thank you to all of them. A beautiful
French translation by Benoit Clenet of a large part
of the text is also available. Parts are available in
Italian and Spanish. Suggestions and errata
can be added at the Motion Mountain wiki.

Enjoy!

Christoph Schiller

[S.Canton]

This is pretty damn cool, and I'm impressed that someone would release this for free.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by S.Canton

This is pretty damn cool, and I'm impressed that someone would release this for free.

i agree. thank you for this.

[Donnageddon]

Looks to be wonderfully fascinating. And I am a science junkie. Unfortunately, reading a 1500 page book in PDF format is not my idea of fun. Just not possible for me.

But good luck with the endeavor!

[fugazied]

"How does one empty a bottle as rapidly as possible?" I learnt that one as a kid hehe. It's a good one to get your kids thinking too, put some water in a soda bottle, tape the bottle opening to the opening of another bottle, and see if your kids can figure out how to get the water from one bottle into the other in under ... say 5 seconds (depending on how much water). A good way to get them thinking about science/physics.

[Gaurnim]

Thanks for making this available !
I'm not sure I will have the time to read it entirely soon, but I might refer to specific sections if the need arises.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by fugazied

"How does one empty a bottle as rapidly as possible?" I learnt that one as a kid hehe. It's a good one to get your kids thinking too, put some water in a soda bottle, tape the bottle opening to the opening of another bottle, and see if your kids can figure out how to get the water from one bottle into the other in under ... say 5 seconds (depending on how much water). A good way to get them thinking about science/physics.

Smash the bottle.