Physics hasn't changed!

[JenneinCA]

My older son is taking Physics 1 at the local community college and got his syllabus today. He is using the same book as I did when I took it many many years ago. I used the third edition. He is using the tenth edition. Somehow this makes me very happy to share this long ago connection with him.

 

The book is Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday and Resnick and more people on the newer editions. I was excited to find out that Resnick was actually a professor at the school I attended. He never taught the class to freshman when I was there, but he did have office hours and was around campus.

 

My son will get to do the same problems I did. Ponder the same questions as I did. I am just happy to share it with him.

[Mike in SA]

Well, physics has changed, but the introductory texts are mostly derived from the same origins. Sears & Zemansky is still holding on from the 1940s!

[regentrude]

Nothing has changed about the physics taught in the first semester, almost nothing about the concepts taught in the second semester.

 

There is no need for ever new editions of introductory textbooks that explain one hundred year old physics.

Often, the older books are far superior because they don't suffer from the colored-boxes-disease.

Edited January 30, 2017 by regentrude

[SparklyUnicorn]

Often, the older books are far superior because they don't suffer from the colored-boxes-disease.

 

I don't understand this.  I find the size of the books with all that added to be ridiculously overwhelming.  Who wants to read a 1200 page book!  There isn't really 1200 pages of information, but I don't want to lug that thing around nor deal with that craziness.

[regentrude]

I don't understand this.  I find the size of the books with all that added to be ridiculously overwhelming.  Who wants to read a 1200 page book!  There isn't really 1200 pages of information, but I don't want to lug that thing around nor deal with that craziness.

 

Several factors.

1. Changing books to have with "enhanced" features means they can sell a new edition every few years and make more money. They can charge more for a fat, glossy, colored book than for a slim b&w volume.

 

2. "Education research" seems to suggest to some people that we need to make material "more accessible". In other words: instead of consecutive text to explain a complicated concept, we deliver a sound bite in a colored box. The hope is that the students will at least read the box, where they were not reading a  page of consecutive text. Instead of expecting students to read the complete section, we are bolding important words (so they don't have to figure out which the important parts are) and put a brief summary into a colored box.

Oh, and we need to make it "more relevant". Thus photos of speedometer, people driving in a car, bicyclist, bungee jumper, swimmer... just to mention a few that occur on the first 39 pages of my text.

And it has to be more entertaining.

 

It is ridiculous. The pages are so fragmented that it is difficult to stay focused when the eye is jumping back and forth between main text, sidebar with graphs, photos, extra tidbits, and then the infamous colored "technique boxes".

Also, in an anonymous survey, the percentage of my students who say they do read the assigned reading is down to 25%. So 75% of these kids are not reading the colorful, relevant, accessible books.

 

I hope I can finally find a reputable Open Source text and be done with the textbook racket once and for all.

[Arcadia]

The 10th edition is at internet archive if your son does not want to lug the textbook everywhere https://archive.org/details/FundamentalsOfPhysics10thEditionHallidayResnick_201612

 

I probably used the 3rd edition too since I was using the book in the late 80s.

 

There isn't really 1200 pages of information, but I don't want to lug that thing around nor deal with that craziness.

Same goes for calculus and chemistry textbooks. They keep getting thicker. My oldest prefer the "ancient" slimmer versions for self study.

[Lanny]

I want to begin buying the next textbooks DD will need, because they are (usually) less expensive at this time of the year.  I know they sometimes change textbooks/courses, as they did with the High School Math courses, for the 2016-2017 school year, so I sent an email, hoping to find out if these courses will be changed, for the 2017-2018 school year, before I click to buy. The Physics textbook that is currently used is a 2002 edition.  I can buy it, today, for 6 cents plus shipping.  Since we are in South America, we pay a lot more, to ship something that weighs that much, from Miami to our house, so I will wait, until I know they are not going to change the textbook.  The Chemistry textbook DD is using at this time is probably also from approximately 2002. The concepts are the same... As regentrude wrote, the newer textbooks might be harder to follow, with the different photos and boxes on the pages, than the older editions.   How sad that only 25% of her students reported that they read the assignments!

[JenneinCA]

The 10th edition is at internet archive if your son does not want to lug the textbook everywhere https://archive.org/details/FundamentalsOfPhysics10thEditionHallidayResnick_201612

 

I probably used the 3rd edition too since I was using the book in the late 80s.

 

 

Same goes for calculus and chemistry textbooks. They keep getting thicker. My oldest prefer the "ancient" slimmer versions for self study.

Thank you for the link.

 

We looked at a sample problem from my old book and the new one you linked and they were the same. Even the numbers in the problem were the same. It does look like the exercises have been changed though. That makes sense to me. I remember there being a big deal about the solutions and the problems being revised several years after I took the class. That was how Walker got author credit on the book.

 

His teacher says that he can use any of the eighth, ninth or tenth edition for doing the class. The teacher has a list of which problems to do for all of those editions. For actual homework the teacher is assigning his own problems rather than any from the book. That seems like a good idea.

[regentrude]

 For actual homework the teacher is assigning his own problems rather than any from the book. That seems like a good idea.

 

Very good idea. Solution manuals for all textbooks are available online; students have no trouble finding, and no scruples using, them.

I got sick of grading submitted papers full of copied solution and am writing all my own assignments now, too.

[MomsintheGarden]

I hope I can finally find a reputable Open Source text and be done with the textbook racket once and for all.

It would be a lot of work, but it would be fabulous if you would write one. Ds was so happy when he found out that his Multivariable Calc & Linear Algebra professor does not require students to purchase textbooks. The prof has written his own lessons and made his own problems, and made them available to his students for free. He gets what he wants for his students, and they love it.

 

Just a thought - you have most certainly considered it already.

[regentrude]

It would be a lot of work, but it would be fabulous if you would write one. Ds was so happy when he found out that his Multivariable Calc & Linear Algebra professor does not require students to purchase textbooks. The prof has written his own lessons and made his own problems, and made them available to his students for free. He gets what he wants for his students, and they love it.

 

Just a thought - you have most certainly considered it already.

 

Heck no. There are already people working on this. 

OpenStax has a College Physics text; I am waiting for their University Physics text to become available. Even carefully reviewing this and checking for errors will be a time consuming job I am not looking forward to.

 

I have lecture notes and a complete set of video lectures that are available to my students and the public. And all my own assignments as well. But writing a text which only 25% of students would end up reading? No way.

Edited January 30, 2017 by regentrude

[Mike in SA]

Several factors.

1. Changing books to have with "enhanced" features means they can sell a new edition every few years and make more money. They can charge more for a fat, glossy, colored book than for a slim b&w volume.

 

2. "Education research" seems to suggest to some people that we need to make material "more accessible". In other words: instead of consecutive text to explain a complicated concept, we deliver a sound bite in a colored box. The hope is that the students will at least read the box, where they were not reading a  page of consecutive text. Instead of expecting students to read the complete section, we are bolding important words (so they don't have to figure out which the important parts are) and put a brief summary into a colored box.

Oh, and we need to make it "more relevant". Thus photos of speedometer, people driving in a car, bicyclist, bungee jumper, swimmer... just to mention a few that occur on the first 39 pages of my text.

And it has to be more entertaining.

 

It is ridiculous. The pages are so fragmented that it is difficult to stay focused when the eye is jumping back and forth between main text, sidebar with graphs, photos, extra tidbits, and then the infamous colored "technique boxes".

Also, in an anonymous survey, the percentage of my students who say they do read the assigned reading is down to 25%. So 75% of these kids are not reading the colorful, relevant, accessible books.

 

I hope I can finally find a reputable Open Source text and be done with the textbook racket once and for all.

 

I still have a 1st edition S&Z (can hold both books in one hand!) and a 2nd Halladay Resnick, because they don't have any of this junk.

[daijobu]

 

The book is Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday and Resnick and more people on the newer editions. I was excited to find out that Resnick was actually a professor at the school I attended.

 

I had the 2 volumes of H&R.  One was yellow with green swirls and the other was green with yellow swirls.  I tried to keep them, but after several years they bindings broke and they started to smell.