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[Phys-L] Re: In the Private Universe



|
| Unfortunately, the vast majority of science textbooks (esp.
| physics) are too long, too technical, too factual, and too
| dry. Books should be readable (like those by Hewitt). I
| imagine these are hard to write since science is a difficult
| subject. College physics texts basically all look the same.
| We need more graphics, better explanations, and shorter
| books. Who can adequately cover (and comprehend) 25-30
| chapters in one year???

IMO, the current set of introductory books err on the side of having way
too much graphics. Students have a hard time actually seeing the main
point of a section because there are so many side boxes of graphics,
pictures, etc. I've seen more than one book where it is actually quite
difficult to tell where the actual main reading material is on a page.
It's almost a style of teaching by non sequitur. Its very distracting.