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Cover of Thinking Physics by Lewis C. Epstein

Thinking Physics

  • 561 pages · about 9 hours
  • First published 1979
  • 17 editions

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1 About this book

Lewis Carroll Epstein explains deep ideas in physics in an easy-to-understand way. Thinking Physics is a perfect beginner's guide to an amazingly wide range of physics-related questions. The book targets topics that science teachers and students spend time wondering about, like wing lift.

Epstein elucidates the familiar but misunderstood — such as how tides work — along with more obscure but fascinating phenomena like the "Bernoulli sub"€ and the "artificial aurora"€ created by hydrogen bombs.

Broken into many short sections and peppered with Epstein'€™s own playful hand-drawn illustrations, the book does not simply give the right answer: It also goes into the answers that seem right but are wrong and shows why they are wrong — a rarity in science books. Thinking Physics is a rigorously correct, lighthearted, and cleverly designed Q and A book for physicists of all ages.

Good for readers who want: physics and a long read.

  • Physics
  • Problems, exercises
  • Problems, excercises

2 About Lewis C. Epstein

Born 1937

Lewis Carroll Epstein is the author of layman's books on physics that use an idiosyncratic mix of cartoons and single-page brain teasers to pull the reader into advanced concepts in classical mechanics, quantum theory, and relativity. His books Thinking Physics and Thinking Physics is Gedanken Physics have been republished for almost 30 years, the former being on the Exploratorium recommended science reading list.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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