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[Phys-L] Re: online physics texts



Folkerts, Timothy J wrote:
I just learned about a collection of books from the people who brought
us the Wikipedia. There are current over 10,000 books, including about
20 in physics (ranging from high school to grad school level). The idea
is to create a set of free books that anyone can use.

Have other people seen this? Any opinions? It seems like a laudable
goal with a decent start. I'm sure we could find plenty to quibble
about - with "sig figs" or "heat" or such - but the little bit I looked
at seemed OK.

The part I looked at didn't look like much of anything.
It looked like a physics book _project_ that hadn't really
gotten started yet. For example the table of contents for
the _Physics with Calculus_ "book" said there would be a
section on "Sums and Products of Vectors" but if you actually
go there, it tells you some things you _can't_ do with vectors,
but never gives you any usable instructions on how to add
vectors, and doesn't even mention multiplication
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Physics_with_Calculus:_Part_0:_Sums_and_Products_of_Vectors

Perhaps this would be a good place for the output of the
Phys-L discussions. Someone summarizes our consensus and posts it at
the Wiki page.

See http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Physics of the physics books

I agree with the sentiment, but I'm not sure about the details.

For years I've been keeping notes on stuff I learned from and/or
contributed to phys-l, and putting it on the web.
http://www.av8n.com/physics/
At the moment there are about 70 articles there, with a few more
"coming soon".

I've had mixed experiences (some good, some bad) contributing to the web
in various ways. There are actually many different schemes in use:
-- If you want control, just start your own web site. You can then
link to other sites of your choosing, and other sites can link to
you ... but your site is still recognizable as *yours*.
-- An intermediate case is represented by databases such as imdb.com
or epinions.com. Anybody can write a review, but they can't edit
other people's reviews. All the contributions sit on the database
site, but stil there are clear divisions between one author's work
and another's.
-- Linux is an open-source project, but there are very clear lines of
control. You can edit other people's work, but you can't expect your
edits to automagically become part of Linux. They has to be tested and
approved by Linus Torvalds or one of his delegates. On the other hand,
it is all open source, so if you don't like the way Linus is doing it,
you can always fork your own version (although I suggest you don't do
this lightly).
-- Wikis are similar in spirit, but the control mechanisms are sometimes
lacking, or if present are sometimes left in not-very-skillful hands.

A wiki is perhaps OK for capturing the conventional wisdom, but it is not
an appropriate forum for expressing anything new or nonstandard. You can
write something unconventional if you want, but the next day somebody will
"improve" it by undoing your work.

For instance, if I were to write the wiki article on "adding and multiplying
vectors" I would for sure recommend multiplying vectors using the geometric
algebra approach: AB = A.B + A/\B. That makes a great deal of sense
*provided* the rest of the book takes the same approach.

A textbook needs consistency as to approach and consistency as to notation.
The wiki scheme doesn't provide that in any natural way.

If you want a good example of an online textbook, check out
http://www.totallyfreemath.com/math.html
This is an algebra text -- as good as any I've seen, and waaay better than
most -- that just happens to be freely available online. It is not open
source or GPL, which means there is no mechanism for making your own
version and republishing it.

It would be really great to have a good online physics book.

Here's a suggestion for you: Somebody should check who holds the copyright
on the PSSC physics book. I think that is out of print, or if in print it
isn't making much money for anybody. Maybe we could talk them into putting
the work under GPL, and then we just scan it in, to form a pretty good
foundation for further developments.