My Physics Book

This page contains a copy of my Physics "Book". It's really a very condensed set of notes on "College Physics 4th Edition" by Serway and Faughn which we used for my Physics AP B class in high school. Despite having dates to the contrary on the pages, the book was written during the early months of 2000 when I was studying Physics AP B at The Menlo School. These notes were originally intended to just be for me but I later found that other class members wanted them so I posted them online on thibs.menloschool.org. Thibs suffered an irrecoverable disk error a few years ago so the contents of this book have been offline for some while.

I do not vouch for the accuracy of this book as it was simply supposed to be a study aide for me at the time it was written. I didn't know as much about physics then as I do now, and the topics covered are some of the more difficult ones, even for reasonably bright science students. Also, this book does not cover calculus which is a major shortcoming as much of physics requires calculus to make sense (that is after all part of the reason calculus was invented). Also, the book only covers the second half of a physics course: electricity and magnetism and modern physics. It doesn't cover the more basic (and easier to understand) concepts in mechanics.

Looking back over this book today, I find it to be remarkably complete. It extracts the raw necessities out of Serway and dispenses with much of the fluff which is common in so many science books. This is not to say that it's a substitute for Serway (or any other physics text), but it could definitely be a valuable study aide or refresher for someone already familar with the material. It is unfortunately littered with typographical errors and some silly attempts at humor.

Lastly, I think I should note that the section entitled "How To Make A Nuclear Reactor -- For Dummies" doesn't actually tell you much beyond basic theory about how to make a nuclear reactor and there should be no fear in this post 9/11 world that terrorists or "rogue nations" could somehow use this section to either construct a reactor or tamper with one. Clearly much better reference material can be found at other sources.

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