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*) Many people -- including many on this list -- are using
textbooks that contain hundreds or thousands of physics errors (not
counting typos and other trivialities), yet nobody seems to care.
I don't think we tolerate errors in textbooks any more than we do in
a layman's youtube video. It's just that many of us feel we are
forced to tolerate the former because a textbook is a necessary
component of the course we've been hired to teach.
I believe we are now living through a transition period, watching
the extinction of the expensive physics textbook. In recent decades
it has has been promoted and enhanced by publishers whose only goal
is to increase their profits. The way in which physics is presented
to students will, I hope, improve as we get these ubiquitous pieces
of nonsense out of the textbooks by killing the textbook itself
Perhaps the OpenStax project will allow us to edit their textbook
soon, and that will serve as a model for reform.
Minds wander after a few minutes of concentration.