Elementary Mechanics and Thermodynamics

John W. Norbury - Elementary Mechanics and Thermodynamics

The reason for writing this book was due to the fact that modern introductory textbooks (not only in physics, but also mathematics, psychology, chemistry) are simply not useful to either students or instructors. The typical freshman textbook in physics, and other ¯elds, is over 1000 pages long, with maybe 40 chapters and over 100 problems per chapter. This is overkill! A typical semester is 15 weeks long, giving 30 weeks at best for a year long course. At the fastest possible rate, we can "cover" only one chapter per week. For a year long course that is 30 chapters at best. Thus ten chapters of the typical book are left out! 1500 pages divided by 30 weeks is about 50 pages per week. The typical text is quite densed mathematics and physics and it's simply impossible for a student to read all of this in the detail required. Also with 100 problems per chapter, it's not possible for a student to do 100 problems each week. Thus it is impossible for a student to fully read and do all the problems in the standard introductory books. Thus these books are not useful to students or instructors teaching the typical course!