Physics Textbook Pdf
Cdztattoo Barreto
This is a good Physics textbook for Algebra based Physics courses taught in colleges. This textbook covers almost every topic for two semester Physics I and Physics II courses. Physics instructor can use this Open Textbook as an option for their...read more
This is a good Physics textbook for Algebra based Physics courses taught in colleges. This textbook covers almost every topic for two semester Physics I and Physics II courses. Physics instructor can use this Open Textbook as an option for their Physics textbook if they do not want students to purchase books. I personally use this open textbook and recommend to students to read chapters or look for examples problems when I explain some topics in Physics. Sometimes, I also use this textbook in my courses. It is a great alternative to college Physics paid textbooks if anyone wants to use it.
physics textbook pdf
All chapters and topics are shown clearly in the right order in table of contents. Each unit and chapter follow the flow connection. Everything is explained very clearly with examples and people can use any chapter in order if they want and, but I would prefer going in the order of chapters as written in the table of content.
This textbook is a good textbook for algebra-based Physics. It focuses good examples related to topics covered for two semester Physics courses in colleges. It shows good flow between topics and good connection of concepts of Physics to the real-world applications. This textbook is good for anyone even for the beginners. I use this textbook in some of my classes and students like it.
If I were to nitpick, some of the pictures such as instruments, vehicles etc. are old and not the best quality. This gives the text an unattractive, dated feel. But this is a purely cosmetic issue that is irrelevant to the teaching of the subject matter.
Modules in the book are well constructed. This allows the instructor to cover topics in a different order from that in the text. The modular structure makes it straightforward to assign sections for student reading.
The book is less attractive than competing texts from the major publishers, mainly because images are of lower quality. But this is a purely cosmetic issue (albeit, one that may bother students a lot), and does not get in the way of teaching the subject at hand.
I wish that, wherever possible, this text and the calculus-based Openstax texts University Physics (vol. 1-3) would mirror each other. Of course, these two texts are written by different authors. But if they followed the same notation wherever possible, it would make the instructors' life much easier while teaching both courses simultaneously.
One example is the right hand rule specifying the magnetic force on a moving charge in an external magnetic field. The two texts use superficially different definitions, which are actually equivalent to each other. Neither definition is better than the other, so why not allow students and instructors the ability to switch between texts?
This text covers all of the topics that we cover in our two semester algebra/trigonometry-based physics course. I was pleased to see that it separates fluid statics and fluid dynamics into two separate chapters as this often times confuses...read more
This text covers all of the topics that we cover in our two semester algebra/trigonometry-based physics course. I was pleased to see that it separates fluid statics and fluid dynamics into two separate chapters as this often times confuses students. There were actually some topics covered that we don't have in our current text. I can't say that we will necessarily then cover ALL of these topics, but having them there for additional information is good.
I was unable to find any instances where information was inaccurate or contained errors. The book contains a good number of sample problems for students to examine in each chapter. The end of chapter problems are sufficient too. I was surprised to not see answers to odd problems in the back of the book, but instead these can be located in a separate student solutions manual that is also free to students.
Most college physics texts don't need much "updating" for general/introductory courses. Even so, being that the text is online it would actually be easier to update than more traditional texts where you have to wait for the next edition. I don't see this text as being anything that would need to be updated, although there certainly could be room for improvement.
I wasn't able to find any examples where terminology would be any more confusing than our current text. Physics traditionally contains quite a bit of vocabulary that students are not familiar with and/or recognize. I don't find this to be any different than any other text that does its best to explain the concepts clearly.
All of the chapters follow a similar pattern. This will make it easier for students when they move from one chapter to the next to know what to expect. Every section has at least one example problem to help students make sense of the concepts and formulas that are presented. Every chapter begins with a common picture that helps students to recognize where these abstract terms are available in their everyday life, has learning objectives per section, and ends the chapter with a glossary, section summary, conceptual questions per section, and lastly problems and exercises per section.
This was one thing that I was concerned with as the book does follow a slightly different approach to some topics than what we have in our current text. I will say that in one of those instances, I actually prefer the approach in this text (angular momentum is included with rotational motion in Chapter 10, rather than with linear momentum in Chapter 8) whereas the other is the placement of optics (we begin our second semester electricity/magnetism course with optics, whereas this text would include it later in the semester if you take the chapters in order). However, in looking it over, I don't see any problem with moving those chapters on optics (25, 26, and 27) earlier in the course. This text seems to allow for some movement of topics depending on what you prefer and how you prefer to introduce topics.
Similar to my last comment on Modularity, I do think that the book follows a reasonable approach through these topics but still affords you the opportunity to move around in a different order if you so prefer (I might choose to move Optics, for instance). I like how some topics are spread over multiple chapters (for instance, fluids is separated into chapter 11 on Fluid Statics and Chapter 12 on Fluid Dynamics) which can help with students differentiating between these two concepts, but instructors could always decide to cover chapters together if they so wish.
I have to say that this is the one aspect of the book that least impressed me. The graphics are not as impressive as those from other (much more expensive) texts. I know that some texts are starting to record solutions and give links to those solution videos using QR codes, whereas this text only shows written problem solutions. This is where this text could certainly improve. The figures are not distorted in any way, but they just aren't what you find in more expensive texts. It's not that this makes the book bad, but it just isn't as impressive as other texts. I don't think that this would necessarily cause confusion or distraction for the reader, however.
In glancing through the book, I did see pictures of both men and women as well as individuals of a variety of races and ethnicities. This is helpful for students to recognize that anyone can find success in this subject area. I saw no examples of culturally insensitive or offensive language.
I have a colleague who has used this text and said that the students responded well to it. I do think that it is a book that can be used successfully with a two (or even three) semester algebra/trigonometry based general physics course.
It is very easy to customize the material to different classes and different instructors. The flow of the chapters and their subdivisions, makes it easy on me me to assign the students to read certain topic with no problems.
I've been teaching out of this book and have yet to find any errors in the text itself. Some of the instructor solutions are questionable, but I've yet to find any errors in the text or student solutions.
The online interface is fantastic! Students will actually have the textbook with them when they need it. The pdf is good too, but the formatting works better online. In the pdf and print forms some boxes and tables are awkwardly split between pages.
No textbook is perfect, and you could spend hours nitpicking the details between this text and any other you are considering. At the end of the day however, this text is free to your students, available online, constantly updated, and very unlikely to be made obsolete by a newer version. The most likely complaints with this text can be solved by using the chapters in the order of your choosing and supplementing the descriptions during class. I use this text in class now and will actively encourage my colleagues to do so as well.
I have taught College Physics 1 and 2 many many times and this book covers all of the topics that every other book covers. The order may not be exactly what you find in other books, but college physics textbooks are all so similar these days, but...read more
I have taught College Physics 1 and 2 many many times and this book covers all of the topics that every other book covers. The order may not be exactly what you find in other books, but college physics textbooks are all so similar these days, but this one is free!
This text is about as clear as every other college physics text, which is to say I find them all quite verbose to the point where most students do not read them. I do wish they would read the text because it is well-written and clear.
Yes I prefer kinematics, then F=ma and then energy then momentum and end with rotation, which this book does. Mostly because no one really learns rotational physics anyway and it's the end of the semester.
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