Understanding Physics (3 Volumes)

This is a well written and helpful introduction to Physics. It is not an easy read though. Be ready to take notes and to work through some math, which is carefully presented without Calculus.

Much of the benefit from reading this is lost if the reader does not work through the math equations.

The

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organization is in 3 volumes: Motion, Sound, and Heat; Light, Magnetixm, and Electricity; Electron, Proton, and Neutron. Within these volumes the basic organization is broadly historical.

Asimov presents the drama and the excitement of the discoveries, demonstrating the connections between different fields of science.

It is a challenging and enjoyable book, one that I will return to. In the book Asimov hints several times that there would be revisions. I am not aware of a revision, but it would be good to have.

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Very good guide to Physics by Isaac Asimov, science ficiton writer par excellence.

Only 30 pages in, and I already love how *clear* this is. Asimov never troubled himself with the fussinesses of style, really -- and here this is a positive virtue. It is hard to imagine these things explained any more straightforwardly ... what more could you possibly want?

Asimov wrote great fiction and good non-fiction. Still, this survey of physics was a good read for me.

As ever, outstanding. But already the discussion of Galileo's rolling balls experiment, which is thorough and informative and uses actual math, leaves me perplexed. What about the fact that a ball in free-fall isn't rolling, and hence need not have any angular acceleration?!! How does that change

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the estimate of g. Or does it?

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