I found no grammatical errors. This feature is especially in the examples (through the discussion presented), application sections, problems sets (conceptual questions are presented before calculations), and PhET sims. The book covers all the subjects traditionally included in an algebra-based college physics course. However, at more than 1400 pages long, I wonder if the textbook could have been made more amenable to... I think their point might have been that the pictures do not have to be great pictures, but one could make a nice picture and then another simpler one a few times to make that point too. The topics are discussed in clear language and the book provides several examples to help understand the topic. OpenStax's College Physics reads quite well. In general, some images have a feeling of being placed a bit haphazardly, maybe rounding the corners or putting a frame around them would have made them look more in-place. It is true that some community colleges offer housing but ours does not. The terminology is consistent throughout the book. Further, Dr. Tsui has the experience of having adopted this book for his class (Summer 2013 semester) and has shared his experiences with me. I do not notice any obvious cultural insensitivities or offensive representations. There could also be some separation of definitions and formulas from the text. I do wish they would read the text because it is well-written and clear. The formatting/quality for formulas is not the best. read more. I don't like some of the language, eg on Page 741 This is much quicker than a traditional, physical text. Philosophy. The formulas can be confusing at times, it seems like they should have used a better editor for the mathematical components. I did not note any grammatical errors in the sections that I have read. read more. Ideally, the best way to move forward would be to allow the instructor (ME) to utilize materials form the text to provide a "cut and paste" option for relevant chapters to be utilize in the order deemed suitable for my students. Each chapter introduces the material with examples and follows up with a summary, a glossary of terms, and two sets of problems. This book has reportedly been produced as part of a well-funded project (including support from the... There are an adequate number of them and they have adequate variety and varying difficulty. It certainly contains much that is useful for our medical and biology students. This is an important feature I plan to take full advantage of in my planned courses/workshops where specific chapters or topics will be used as instruction for content underlying specific real-world topics. The grammar could be improved. Context is provided in every chapter for many topics. It is hard to find topics that should be included in an introductory text such as this one that have been left out. This happens very fast and once they have done this the electric field must be perpendicular to the surface of the condocutor. At the back of the book there is a glossary, but no index except for the electronic index. Most other physics textbooks provide a rating for each end-of-chapter question (I, II, III) as a rough estimate of the question's difficulty. The contents of this book are complete, and it is done in an orderly manner. Instructors and physics departments should be very careful about choosing this textbook simply because it is free. The material is mostly up-to-date and could be updated easily. Reviewed by Eric Mandell, Lecturer, Bowling Green State University on 2/1/18, This text covers all of the expected content in a College Physics course, encompassing both semesters, and includes several modern physics topics. The writing style is certainly accessible without being too informal. I do find this material interesting, but it is a definite extra that is very prevalent in the chapter questions as well as supporting chapters. There are glossaries at the end of each chapter. It seems to prefer US references rather than incorporating world contributions to physics or as examples of physics. We are trying to focus these courses on the human body as a mechanical, electrical and thermodynamic system and are using the MCAT test as a guide. My concern is that this is not enough for students and it would be better to show the arrow over the symbol. A PDF file of each chapter can also be created. (0.99 has three “honorary” sig figs.) Reviewed by Amber Hicks, Instructor, Portland Community College on 8/2/18, This book covers all areas and ideas of the subject but is not catered to the diversity that make up community college students. read more. Some of the illustrations look like they were came from somewhat low-resolution jpeg files. Generally the images are fine. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left. We expect this will be the case for most students immediately in the early chapters of this text.
,d. Many biomedical applications and examples in this text. Still I found no problematic points. read more,
At the back of the book there is a glossary, but no index except for the electronic index. The text covers all of what we cover in our General Physics sequence (i.e. It includes bio-med applications, as is expected for this course, including dedicated chapters to there are dedicated chapters to fluid dynamics and nuclear physics in bio-med applications in fluid dynamics and nuclear physics. There appear to be attempts to make the problems more gender neutral (i.e. I am using this text next semester in an online course and hope to see further how much I feel the need to supplement in each case. For the most part, I found the images to be excellent. There are an adequate number of examples in the text with nice color pictures. Some of the problems are interesting and unusual. I found the book suitably modular, and divided sections similar to other physics textbooks. My point of comparison was Physics, Walker (4th edition) which is currently our main textbook for the our non calculus Physics courses. This book is designed for the 200-level algebra based introductory physics course, which is typically taken by students in the biological sciences and health science majors. This book is clearer than most physics textbooks. The eariy chapters 1-8 were spot on. I think the material is presented in a clear concise way; that is why I will be using the same book for my next Algebra based course. Tsui nominally examined Chapters 1 - 17 and Sato nominally examined Chapters 18 - 34. As regards comprehensiveness, Openstax’s... There needs to be some mention of comparing the accelerations of two masses (one possibly being the standard) when the are subjected to the same force and that the ratios of the masses are inverse to the accelerations. Topics: General Physics. It is my hope that I can reference the textbook often enough so that the student will use it often as their “go-to” reference instead of just googling whatever they are trying to learn. Sancho, in describing a fight with his wife to Don Quixote, says, `Of course I hit her back, Your Grace, but she’s a lot harder than me and you know what they say, ‘Whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it’s going to be bad for the pitcher’.” The reader is left with the subliminal impression of asymmetry (whatever the interaction, “it’s going to be bad for the pitcher”), whereas the point the authors want to make in section 4.4 is that the third law demands a certain symmetry of physical interactions or forces. The authors presented the material in the typical order starting from mechanics to modern physics; The table of content is easy to navigate, just click on any chapter you want to and you are there. Our students in these courses are mainly in the medical and biological areas. Photographs and figures of people seem to include people of all races and genders. Rotations of a Rigid Body Oscillations & SHM Traveling Waves and Sound Principle of Superposition and Interference Fluids Temperature and Ideal Gases Heat and Thermodynamics. CH 27: the combined contributions of the double slit and single slit patterns to the pattern of the double slit interference is not discussed, but is hinted at in the problem 11. No issues that would distract the reader, but the font and style used for numbers, scientific notation and units change depending on where the value is shown and what the units actually are. Everything is clearly defined and laid out. There is a discrepancy of 10 pages. The concept of selecting reference frames is consistent throughout. Some topics were treated somewhat better than others, but on the whole it was all adequate and mostly quite good. read more. Text to speech is supported. There were some examples of notation that were not adequately explained, for example the use of F12 on page 639 without explaining that it means the force on particle 1 due to particle 2. I will re-state here, This is typical of a physics book. I would also love to see focus on short term trainings and stackable certifications. Misprints and misspellings also make some of the statements "inaccurate" and confusing. This means submissions for updates are reviewed and then included if they add to the text. In that time, I’ve had to work with half-a-dozen mainstream texts from publishing houses like Pearson and Wiley. No significant issues detected.
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