Didactics Self-study Motto Plan Paper version Dedication History
The publication of the text is organized by a charitable non-profit
association.
Aim of the project
Across all languages, physics is the science with the worst textbooks. This project wants to change this, by producing a simple, vivid and up-to-date introduction to modern physics. 'Simple' means that concepts are stressed more than formalism; 'vivid' means that the reader is continuously entertained, motivated and challenged; 'up-to-date' means that modern research and present ideas about unification are included. The subtitle of the text, The Adventure of Physics, sums up these three aspects.
The approach starts with an uncommon, but clear definition of physics: physics is the science of motion. The project then takes the search for a precise description of motion as a guiding principle for an exploration of modern physics. This leads to a storyline which is somewhat different from the usual one. Nature's limits to speed, entropy, force, action and charge are central to the presentation.
The text aims to explain the unification of physics - the full theory of motion - in simple language. The project will be completed as soon as the current search for a full theory of motion will have been successful and its results included in the text. Therefore the project still has some time to go.
The development of a book version for the blind has started.
Didactics
The text is written for self-study. It tells a story; it is not a commented formula collection. In its teaching approach, the project tries to satisfy several needs. First of all, the explanations are written in a way that should appeal both to people who prefer thinking in images and to those that prefer thinking in words. Furthermore, the content has been selected to attract both male and female readers. Next, the text is written to appeal to composer and to competitor characters. The text also tries to cater both for the experimentally and the theoretically inclined. Finally, the story should appeal to those who like the natural sciences and to those who like the humanities.
Self-study
Motto
The motto of the text, `Die Sachen klären, die Menschen stärken', translates as `To clarify things, to fortify people.' The motto has direct consequences for the presentation. Many people email to ask that certain beliefs be inserted: astrology, creation, invention of physics by the Mayas, examples of perpetuum mobiles, new energy sources, strange religious topics, cranky philosophical statements, dishonest theological theses, faster-than-light energy speeds, telepathy, "mind is stronger than matter", "there are things that cannot be measured", multiverse, many-world interpretations of quantum theory, and more. However, the motto stands for clarity: statements that are false or without content are labeled as such. Thus, such email requests will indeed lead to inclusion in the text, if the statements are entertaining enough: in the section on nonsense or in that on lies.
Plan
As of End 2008, the first three parts (on classical physics, relativity and electrodynamics) are essentially ready. Only improvements are planned, such as clearer explanations and more figures. Bringing the fourth and fifth part (on quantum theory) to the same completion is the main remaining part of the project. The sixth and last part (on the unification of quantum theory with general relativity) will be finished when new research results appear. The 'to do' list of the project, in December 2008, has about 1050 open items, of which 530 are missing challenge solutions.
Paper version
No paper version of the text exists yet, for two main reasons. First, the text is not finished. Secondly, many people who provided films and pictures did so because the text is free for all. Thus many rights need to be obtained again. These are also the reasons that the text is not on lulu.com.
I am working with a well-known publisher towards a paper version. However, the publication will still take some time. Until then, the only affordable paper option is to print a copy for yourself in black and white.
Dedication
Since its start in 1997, this website is dedicated to my brothers Stephan and Philipp Schiller.
History
The 22nd edition, of January 2009, adds over 50 new illustrations, explains how it is possible to plunge a bare hand into molten lead, includes a film of an oscillating quartz inside a watch, explains how it is possible to type a letter by controlling a computer with thought alone, includes a film of a solar flare, explains the fifteen ways that colours appear in rocks plants and animals, explains the connection between cats and gauge theory, adds more ways in which the human eye invents colours that are not there, includes a list of laser types and applications, includes many images of crystals, explains how physics Plotinus and christianty come together to show that the universe and god are one and the same, adds the handcuff puzzle and several other puzzles, explains how jet pilots frighten civilians with sonic superbooms produced by fighter planes, presents the most beautiful and precise sundial available today, adds a simple photographic proof that the Earth is larger than the Moon, improves the presentation of elementary particle physics, adds a photo of a red rainbow, gives the latest discoveries on the Galileo trial, presents a fascinating mathematical aspect of Ohm's law, states the hardest open math problem that you can explain to your grandmother, and much more.
The 21st edition, of December 2007, adds over one hundred new figures and tables, numerous explanations, and many examples from animals, plants and machines. The text now explains why the speed of light is too slow to speculate with success on the stock exchange, adds the second-level bear fur colour puzzle and the young mother puzzle, presents the nearest place with a pressure permanently lower than that of the atmosphere, adds the puzzle about the horse and the snail on a rubber, tells more about metamaterials, adds some simple chemical puzzles, presents what incredible things on atomic layers one can discover using a pencil and sticky tape, tells more on biological rhythms and clocks, explains how to observe the rotation of the Earth in any classroom after two seconds of observation, shows an electric effect observed on many playgrounds, shows the beauty of bursting soap bubbles and bouncing tennis balls, explains how it is possible to observe the motion of single, isolated electrons, and tells how to build the simplest possible radio control system.
The 20th edition, of January 2007, adds a dozen animations and films: generation and motion of electromagnetic waves, leap-frogging vortex rings, jumping snakes, the propagation of solitons and dromions, growing ice crystals, rotating atomic orbitals, the actin-myosin system in muscles in action, and Dirac's belt trick. The edition also introduces robots that walk on water, explains how to observe the polarization of light with the unaided human eye in the same way as honey bees do, shows how to produce floating plasma clouds similar to ball lightning, tells more about the Galilean satellites, mentions the world records for running backwards and the attempts to break the speed sailing record, tells in more detail how to learn from books with as little effort as possible, presents the polarized car headlight problem and many other puzzles.
The site was set up in November 1997, to pass on the best stories known about physics. Updates appear twice a year. The project itself started in 1990, in Yokohama.