Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality

by Lewis Carroll Epstein

Book Overview

Lewis Carroll Epstein explains deep ideas in physics in an easy-to-understand way. Thinking Physics is a perfect beginner's guide to an amazingly wide range of physics-related questions. The book targets topics that science teachers and students spend time wondering about, like wing lift. Epstein elucidates the familiar but misunderstood -- such as how tides work -- along with more obscure but fascinating phenomena like the "Bernoulli sub"...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935218084
• ISBN13: 9780935218084
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Insight Press, Inc.
• Length: 582 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A fun book that should be in your library...

This book gets one excited about physics. Common physical phenoman like rate, speed, mass and force are explained in very ingenious ways. What is more the writing is good and to the point. Even though there is not much math to speak of the author explains things in a concise manner. What got me hooked to this book is that it does require thinking on part of the reader. One quickly finds out that what may seem intuitive and common sense is in fact precisely the wrong answer. Another major advantage of the book is that you do not have to read it from page one onwards. Turn to any segment and you are sure to be sucked in. Page after page is filled with nice little nuggets of fun. Get this book you will not regret it.

Learn physics without math

This is a jewel of a book. The latest second edition includes additional material on waves, which addresses a lack in the earlier edition. There are sections on optics, momentum, kinetic and potential energy, etc. My favorite problem, and this is typical of the sort of material presented, is to decide whether or not a car traveling at 50 mph suffers more damage in: A. hitting an immovable brick wall B. having a head-on collision with an identical car (both) traveling at 50 mph The usual response is to say B. However, Newton's 3rd law of motion ("forces always act in pairs - if a exerts a force on b, then b exerts an equal and oppositely-directed force on a) maintains that the damage is the same, ie, the wall strikes the car with the force of a head-on collision. This problem by the way is particularly juicy - I remember the head of a university physics department discussing this one at considerable length with two other physicists. (They more or less agreed, with provisos, after several minutes, that B. is indeed the correct answer.) The author encourages thinking without mathematics to come to terms with the physical reality of whatever we're analyzing. This approach closely mirrors that of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, who felt that mathematics was useful only as an adjunct to science and no substitute for clear thinking. A marvellous book.

Absolutely fantastic!

I've had this book since I was a freshman in High School and cannot say enough about how much it has helped me to develop effective ways of conceptualizing the physical world and how it works. It manages to explain everything from simple mechanics to the theory of relativity in a manner that anyone can understand. Extremely though provoking. It's greatest contribution is not the information it presents, but the way it shapes your mind to think effectively. I think it should be mandatory reading in our schools.A big thank you from me also Mr. Epstein!

conceptual physics at its best

I took this book with me on a retreat--and read it straight through, unable to put it down. Physics actually made *sense.* Yes, for topics like mechanics you need texts like Kleppner & Kolenkow (or the text of your choice, I suppose) if you intend to study physics more seriously. But the *why* of physics never made so much sense in K & K as it did in Thinking Physics.While a lot of physics (from what I can tell) *is* calculation, the heart of it (also from what I can tell) is in the understanding, the *why.* You won't get much math out of Thinking Physics, but that's what the *other* textbooks are for. And math without understanding isn't much help.Thank you, Mr. Epstein, for writing this book.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

I have been teaching college physics for 10 years, and I recommend to my students that they buy this book. It is clear, concise, and most importantly, engaging.I have adopted several examples from this book into my standard repetoire of teaching tools.I have had students (who were initially negative about physics) tell me that they often find themselves getting lost in this book for an hour or two, because they found it _that_ interesting... Strong praise indeed!Whatever level of physics you are at, this book has something for you. Whether you're a curious 10-year-old, or a university professor of physics, this book has something to teach you.