xii CONTENTS
lecture or assigned. In fact, (if you’re just such a student reading these words) you can always decide
to read itright now(as soon as you finish this Preface). It won’t take you an hour, andmight make
as much as a full letter difference (to the good) in your final grade.What do you have to lose?
Even if you think that you are an excellent student and learn things totally effortlessly, I strongly
suggest reading it. It describes a new perspective on the teachingand learning process supported
by very recent research in neuroscience and psychology, and makes very specific suggestions as to
the best way to proceed to learn physics.
Finally, theIntroductionis a rapid summary ofthe entire course!If you read it and look at the
picturesbeforebeginning the course proper you can get a good conceptual overview of everything
you’re going to learn. If youbeginby learning in aquickpass the broad strokes for the whole course,
when you go through each chapter in all of its detail, all those factsand ideas have a place to live
in your mind.
That’s the primary idea behind this textbook – in order to be easy to remember, ideas need a
house, a place to live. Most courses try to build you that house by giving you one nail and piece of
wood at a time, and force you to build it in complete detail from the ground up.
Realhouses aren’t built that way at all! First a foundation is established, then theframe of the
whole houseis erected, and then, slowly but surely, the frame is wired and plumbed and drywalled
and finished with all of those picky little details. It works better thatway. So it is with learning.
Textbook Layout and Design
This textbook has a design that is just about perfectly backwardscompared to most textbooks that
currently cover the subject. Here are its primary design features:
- All mathematics required by the student is reviewed in a standalone,cross-referenced (free)
work at thebeginningof the book rather than in an appendix that many students never find. - There are onlythirteen substantive chapters. The book is organized so that it can be sanely
taught in asingle college semesterwith atmosta chapter a week. I teach it in a five week
summer session at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC and (at three chapters a week plus
startup and wind-down) that works too! - Itbeginseach chapter with an “abstract” and chapter summary. Detail, especially lecture-note
style mathematical detail, follows the summary rather than the other way around. - This text doesnotspend page after page trying to explain in English how physics works
(prose which to my experience nobody reads anyway). Instead, aterse “lecture note” style
presentation outlines the main points and presents considerable mathematical detail to support
solving problems. - Verbal and conceptual understandingis, of course, very important. It is expected to come
from verbal instruction and discussion in the classroom and recitation and lab. This textbook
relieson having a committed and competent instructor and a sensible learning process. - Each chapter ends with ashort(by modern standards) selection ofchallenginghomework
problems that are specifically chosen toprecisely span the primary concepts and examples,
often requiring a student to rederive for themselves things that were presented as primary
content or examples in lecture. A good student might well get throughall of the problems in
the book, rather than at most 10% of them as is the general rule for other texts. Students that
really, really want more problems to solve to shoot for an ‘A’ can look at can find them in a
supplementary (online) book filled with nothing but problems, but students that can do the
homework perfectly will almost certainly get a ‘B’ or better without them.