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[Phys-L] Thermal Physics solution manual



Dear colleagues,

The Instructors' Solution Manual for my textbook, An Introduction to Thermal Physics, is now out of print. The publisher, Pearson, is not interested in reprinting it, but they have offered to post it online as a pdf that instructors could download after logging on with a password. However, there are other options. As I see it, the choices are as follows:

1. Post the pdf on the Pearson web site, protected by a password so only instructors can download it.

2. Release the manual from copyright and let anyone distribute it freely. I would then post it on my own web site, and it would become a students' solution manual.

3. Stop distributing the manual but keep it under copyright, so it would become less available and the only legal copies would be those that have already been distributed.

4. Some combination of the above. For example, a subset of solutions could be released from copyright for distribution to students, while others could be provided only to instructors or not at all.

I'm writing to solicit your input on this decision. Personally, I am torn. Part of me wishes I had never written a solution manual, because its mere existence conveys the message that solutions are things that are handed down by authority (the textbook author) rather than things you should figure out for yourself and think about critically. On the other hand, many instructors seem to depend on the solution manual, especially when they are pressed for time.

Of course I am aware of the fact that scanned copies of the solution manual are already being distributed among students, illegally, on the internet. My impression is that Pearson's legal department can make illegal downloading less convenient, but cannot stop it entirely. If we release a high-quality pdf of the manual, then its distribution in electronic form will become somewhat more convenient.

What should we do?

Dan Schroeder
Weber State University