An entertaining and free e-book introducing physics – the science of motion. Now in its 25th anniversary.
Explore the motion of wheels, birds, lightning, planets, light and empty space itself! Be fascinated by the beauty of nature and by the concepts of modern physics, from the principle of cosmic laziness – least action – to gauge symmetry – the symmetry of charges and quarks!
Find out what fireworks, mobile phones and butterflies have in common, how muscles work, how colours appear, how levitation is possible, why we can see the stars, and which problems in physics are still unsolved. If you are between the age of 16 and 106, you will enjoy it. These videos show why.
New in this edition: a video that shows how monster waves appear on the sea, the first device that is able to measure locally the speed of molecules in a sound wave, a pressure puzzle, the physics of blood circulation, why some women can see more colours than any man, how to detect alcohol exhaled by a driver in a car driving by, details on the swimming of fish, and the most beautiful hologram made so far.
Download the files separately here, without a captcha:
Download
volume I - FALL, FLOW AND HEAT (138 MB).
Download
volume II - RELATIVITY (47 MB).
Download
volume III - LIGHT, CHARGES AND BRAINS (65 MB).
Download volume IV - THE QUANTUM
OF CHANGE (34 MB).
Download
volume V - PLEASURE, TECHNOLOGY AND STARS (75 MB).
Download
volume VI - THE STRAND MODEL – A SPECULATION ON
UNIFICATION (22 MB).
Motion Mountain is written for pupils, students, teachers and anybody curious about nature: the text is full of telling anecdotes, captivating riddles, unusual tables, astonishing photographs and beautiful films. It has been downloaded over 200 000 times.
Entertaining and surprising on every page, the pdf files tell about sport, raindrops and animal life (mechanics, gravity and heat), about moving empty space and the sky at night (relativity and the structure of the universe), about lightning, lasers and nerves (electricity, optics, the brain, language and truth), and about colours, pleasure and the stars (quantum physics, nuclear physics and radioactivity).
The sixth and last volume presents, in contrast to the previous ones, a research topic; it tells about the search for a final, unified theory of physics.
Prizes and rewards are offered for solving a number of challenges and for helping to improve the text. You will be mentioned in the index and in the acknowledgements.
Please consider a donation to the charitable, non-profit, tax-exempt publisher if you like my book:
The proper use of your donation is controlled by the German tax authority. No profit is or has ever been made: of the sum spent for this project so far, less than a quarter has been covered by donations.
Translations:
- A French edition of the three volumes on mechanics, heat, relativity and electricity is available – as free pdf or as affordable paper edition – due to the fantastic effort of Benoît Clénet.
- An Italian free pdf edition of quantum theory and of special relativity is available.
- Spanish, and German free pdf editions of special relativity are available.
- A free Russian html edition of the section on mechanics is partially available.
If you want, you can help expanding them.
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