Aim Motto Didactics Self-study PlanNow on paper! Dedication Organisation History
The dream
I always wanted to write the physics textbook from which I would have liked to learn the subject when I was young. This physics book should, above all, convey the fascination of the subject. After 20 years, the present, 24th edition is approaching that goal. The main edition is the free pdf file with colour images, embedded movies, clickable cross-references and live internet links. This free pdf edition is organized by a charitable non-profit association. Your donation is tax-deducible; for the Paypal page or for banking details, click here. Realizing a frequent request, a black & white paper edition is now available.
Aim of the project
Across all languages, physics is the science with the worst textbooks. This project wants to change this, by producing a simple, captivating and up-to-date introduction to modern physics. 'Simple' means that concepts are stressed more than formalism; 'captivating' means that the reader is continuously entertained, motivated and challenged; 'up-to-date' means that modern research results are included. The subtitle of the text, The Adventure of Physics, sums up these three aspects.
The approach starts with an uncommon, but clear definition of physics: physics is the science of motion. The project then takes the search for a precise description of motion as a guiding principle for an exploration of modern physics. This leads to a storyline which is somewhat different from the usual one. Nature's limits to speed, entropy, force, action and charge are central to the presentation.
Motto
The motto of the text, 'Die Menschen stärken, die Sachen klären', translates as 'To fortify people, to clarify things'. The motto has direct consequences for the presentation. Many people email to ask that false beliefs should be inserted: astrology, creation, alleged invention of physics by the Mayas or other people, examples of perpetuum mobiles, new energy sources, strange religious topics, cranky philosophical statements, dishonest theological theses, faster-than-light energy speeds, telepathy, "mind is stronger than matter", "there are things that cannot be measured", multiverse, many-world interpretations of quantum theory, false statements about measurement limits, supersymmetry and more. However, the motto stands for clarity: statements that are false or without content are labeled as such. Thus, such email requests will indeed lead to inclusion in the text, if the statements are entertaining enough: the topics will end up in the section on nonsense or in that on lies.
Didactics
The text is written for self-study. It tells a story; it is not a commented formula collection. In its teaching approach, the project tries to satisfy several needs. First of all, the explanations are written in a way that should appeal both to people who prefer thinking in images and to those that prefer thinking in words. Furthermore, the content has been selected to attract both male and female readers. Next, the text is written to appeal to composer and to competitor characters. The text also tries to cater both for the experimentally and the theoretically inclined. In addition, the story should appeal to those who like the natural sciences and to those who like the humanities. Finally, the story should motivate, entertain and startle both beginners and experts in physics.
Self-study
Plan
The remaining plan is to improve the explanations, to add topics where necessary, and to improve the quality of the text. Edition 25, now already available for a few volumes, should be the final one.
Paper version
All volumes are available in black and white paper here on lulu.com. They are delivered directly to the address you specify.
These paper versions are all in black and white, because on-demand colour printing is extremely expensive. The colour version will be organized with another, traditional publisher.
Dedication
Since its start in 1997, this website is dedicated to my brothers Stephan and Philipp Schiller.
Organisation
The book is a one-man project. The publication is supported by a charitable non-profit association, the Motion Mountain Physikverein. Your donation, however small, is welcome! It will be used to improve the book and its distribution. Your donation is tax-deducible according to German law. For details, click here. Thank you in advance, also in the name of all future readers!
History
The 24th edition, of July 2010, now also explains why it makes sense to choose a zig-zag path when climbing steep mountains, how you can visualize the wave function and understand quantum mechanics, what the jumping height of various animals is, how the belt trick or scissor trick saves lives, how you can measure the curvature of space in your own home, why the moguls on skiing slopes move upwards, and that your eyes are full of optical fibers. The text also tells the story of the biggest disappointment of the television industry in the twentieth century.
The 23rd edition, of October 2009, includes new films on the relativistic effects due to aberration and accelerated motion, new films on the motion of wave functions in quantum theory, and over 100 new colour photographs. The text now tells how yellow light improves tomato sales and pink light reduces crime, it presents the still unexplained experiences of apnoea divers, it explains why wearing sunglasses can transform humans into apes, it tells about the recently discovered natural quasicrystals, it explains nerve pulses as a mixture of sound and current, it describes the wake behind ducks, swans and ships, it explains why ultrasound imaging is not safe for a foetus, it adds the relativistic circular train puzzle, it explains how to prove the invariance of the speed of light by looking at the sky, it gives details about the solar spectrum, it presents the 'floating bed' puzzle, it tells about a measured version of the Unruh effect called the Sokolov-Ternov effect, it explains how to measure the power of the Sun with closed eyes, it gives the ideal shape of skateboard half-pipes, and it estimates the total length of all capillaries in the human body.
The 22nd edition, of January 2009, adds over 50 new illustrations, 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 christianty 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, and much more.
The 21st edition, of December 2007, adds over one hundred new figures and tables, numerous explanations, and many examples from animals, plants and machines. The text 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 20th edition, of January 2007, adds 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 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, shows how to produce floating plasma clouds similar to ball lightning, tells more about the Galilean satellites, 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, presents the polarized car headlight problem and many other puzzles.
The website was set up in November 1997, to pass on the best stories known about physics. Updates appear twice a year. The project itself started in 1990, in Yokohama. The second half of volume VI, the last one, was conceived while commuting to and from work, in the years 2003 to 2008. All volumes were written in the evenings, after work.