The New York Times today (September 16, 2003) has an article about the high
price of college textbooks. Indeed they are atrocious - typically $150 now
for introductory physics. For several years I have not used textbooks in
the introductory courses I've taught, preferring to make notes and problem
sets available online as pdf files. This is partly because the high
prices don't seem justified to me, and partly because the large, wordy
textbooks make it difficult for the students to "see the forest for the
trees," in my opinion. They are the printed equivalent of the passive
lectures.
A step in the right direction might be E. R. Huggins' Physics 2000 textbook
(see http://www.physics2000.com), which is available for $10 on CD or for
$25 as CD plus two printed volumes. Has anyone used this textbook?
I'd be interested in the opinions of other physics teachers on this subject.