motionmountain

This continues the above thread: The new, twenty-first edition of the freely downloadable physics textbook is available on http://www.motionmountain.eu Over 1400 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, 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! Christoph Schiller

After nine months, the new, nineteenth edition of the free Motion Mountain physics text can now be downloaded at http://motionmountain.net Over 1300 pages lead through the whole of physics, from mechanics to relativity, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum theory, nuclear physics and unification. The nineteenth edition gives details on radiometric dating techniques, explains why it is forbidden to carry thermometers on airplanes, shows how to use the same idea to measure the speed of bullets and that of light, presents a classical system that obeys the Schroedinger equation, introduces Tesla coils, shows that space-time has different properties in certain patent offices, tells how to see effects from atoms using only a lamp and a piece of metal, gives more details on clouds and jets of astronomic size, shows how to perform a precision Michelson-Morley experiment, gives the latest results on the Pioneer anomaly, introduces fusion reactors, demonstrates the chromatic lens errors of the eye, and presents the simplest unsolved problem about the trefoil knot. The text also provides improved writing, more figures, more curiosities, many additional solutions to the challenges, and, thanks to the help of Martin Elsaesser, the first embedded animation. Many thanks also to all those readers who have suggested improvements and material for the text. An errata page that allows direct feedback via the website is now available. Enjoy. Christoph Schiller

This should work now: The 16th edition of the free physics text is now available at http://www.motionmountain.net The new edition adds the way to measure the speed of light with a piece of chocolate, the speed value of the fastest object thrown by hand, impressions of Prof. Furukawa's feeling for snow, the story of negative index of refraction, the way to prove that light is made of photons using the naked human eye and a shutter (only), what Lavoisier managed to do after (yes, after) his head was cut off, the way herring communicate under water by farting, a figure of Kötter's magic numbers for swirled spheres, an introduction to Lie groups, a full commented list of the chemical elements, and hundreds of small improvements. (Look up these topics in the index.) The new edition also adds a new 8-page section on how to deduce lower and upper limits of all physical quantities in nature - thus extending the entropy bound of Bekenstein to all other observables. Among others, the lowest lowest power, the lowest force, the highest acceleration and the highest angular momentum are presented. (`Upper and lower limits to all observables' - part of file http://www.motionmountain.net/C19-LIMI.pdf ) The text remains surprising and thought-provoking as ever, on each of its over 1000 pages. For all fields of physics the newest research results and the main open questions are presented. The text provides a structured and entertaining walk through all of physics, from classical mechanics to relativity, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum theory, nuclear physics and unification. There should not be any boring page. If you disagree, please complain - I will improve the page. Enjoy! Christoph Schiller

The free physics text available on http://www.motionmountain.net (so far, the 21 MB pdf file only) has been reworked. Many improvements have been introduced throughout this 15th version of the text, which remains surprising and thought-provoking on every one of its over 1000 pages. There are many new figures, an explanation of the indeterminacy relation of thermodynamics, a new puzzle on the way to catch bananas, the fundaments of dislocations, the reason that mornings are quiet and evenings are not, the method used by whales to communicate below water, and the story on how to swim through empty, but curved space-time. The explanation of the microscope and the telescope, the addition of accelerations in special relativity, and the fundaments of topology and Lie groups have been included. There are now over 1300 problems, 600 solutions, 300 figures and 80 tables. The section on quantum theory has been expanded; it now gives an improved introduction to quantum theory. There is also a new section called "Physics in limit statements" that summarizes special relativity, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, general relativity and quantum theory in five simple inequalities. Not only do they summarize most of 20th century physics; they also allow to draw in simple ways some conclusions that are important conceptual steps on the way towards the unified description of nature. In this way, the section provides some background to Brian Greene's discussion of space-time in "The elegant universe". The maximum force principle is explained in more detail than before. It is shown how to deduce the field equations of general relativity from the simple statement that no force in nature is larger than c^4/4G. In this way general relativity gets accessible in its main lines to everybody with a secondary school degree. In general, for all fields of physics the newest research results and the main open questions are presented. The text remains a structured walk through classical physics, relativity, quantum theory and unification. It should appeal to everybody with an interest for physics. The reader gets a vivid and entertaining overview of how motion can be described and of what it can effect. Enjoy! Christoph Schiller P.S. Thank you to all readers who have provided suggestions and corrections. They are all mentioned in the foreword (I hope I did not forget anybody). Proposals for colour images to be added to the future text versions (with permission) are much appreciated. ***