Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

REFLECTION on the sorry state of textbook publishing

The treatment of this topic in Gene Hecht's book PHYSICS CALCULUS is
fresh and, it seems to me, and improvement over the usual treatment in
introductory level textbooks. Check it out.

I once taught from the noncalculus version of this textbook. I didn't
like it very much. The attempt to explain Maxwell's displacement current
(without calculus) is an utter disaster. I looked in the Calculus
version just now at the section that was suggested. I don't think it's
great, but there are some good conceptual points. What struck me,
however, was a graph and table on the facing page (p. 947, 1st ed.,
Table 25.1 and Figure 25.18) of indices of refraction. The table has no
surprises, but the graph is a shocker. There is dense flint glass with
a D index of 1.75, and fused quartz in the table is (for no apparent
good reason) called vitreous quartz on the graph. If the intention is
to confuse, then the author and editors missed a bet. They could have
used a different synonym, fused silica, in the table.

One might well ask me why I have the calculus version if I don't like
the book. The answer is easy - the publisher (Brooks/Cole) sent out a
bunch of these books at great expense more or less at random. This
practice, almost universal in the trade now with elementary physics and
astronomy textbooks, must be a rewarding one. I do know that the
audience for such books is guaranteed, and price seems to be no barrier
to selection by faculty who don't have to purchase the books themselves.
I, for one, object to the pricing of textbooks and the unethical (and I
would have thought illegal in the USA) practice of price fixing. Have
you noticed Amazon *never* marks down textbooks? I used to tell my
Canadian colleagues that such a practice is illegal in the USA; I now
see that I was incorrect.

Our students are being taken to the cleaners by the publishers and many
faculty don't seem to care. It is a disgrace.

Thank you for your indulgence of my rant. I feel better now.

Leigh