Misprint Archive

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Last misprints from edition 24.xx, corrected in edition 25.01

  • Vol. 2, p. 16, fig. 4: in "walker's perspective", the rectangular triangle is inconsistent with formula 1 on next page. (You correct this in Challenge 6, but giving an incorrect formula in the first place puzzles the reader.) (CS: this is a long stry - I'll do as you propose)
  • Vol. 2, p. 21, line 6,7 from bottom: Replace "standing wave" by "frozen wave" or sth. else: A standing wave oscillates except for the nodes; what the wave crest surfer sees is a non-oscillating wave, "frozen" in space and time. (CS: thank you)
  • Vol 2, p. 24, Eq. 24 and surroundings: Treating the synchronization problem within 5 lines of text is too simple. One might say: "If you travel a longer way, you need a longer time, so what." Some elaboration is needed here. (CS: what place do you mean? p24 of eq 24?)
  • Vol 2, p. 25, Fig. 10: The black coordinate-system is somewhat misleading, the pink arrows should be labelled "*time of* xth observer or clock" (CS: no, they are the world-lines of the two observers.)
  • Vol 2, p. 26, Fig. 11: Remove unnecssary hands in lower part of figure. (CS: I prefer not)
  • Vol 2, p. 27, line 14 from bottom: insert "It depends *ON* what you mean." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol 2, p. 33, close to challenge 28s: Re-formulate, because nowadays, TV sets no longer use CRTs. (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 37, line 8: We star*t* with relativistic ... (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 38, last line: There are no "two origins" in the figures (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 39, line 3 from below: insert "had": "... *HAD* to be discardad ..." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 63, line 7: replace "its" by "her or his": "... *HER* mass decreases ..." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 68, line 12: Insert space after "E=mc²." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 71, close to Challenge 94s: strange signs appear at EOL. (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 75, line 12 replace "... the situation is somewhat recalls..." by "... the situation somehow resembles ..." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 2, p. 79, line 20: insert "you": " ... because at lower height *YOU* stay younger" (CS: thank you)


  • Vol. 3, p. 28, caption of fig. 11: replace "Windhurst machine" by "Wimshurst machine" (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 47, motto in latin: Translation is missing (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 61, line 18 from bottom: remove "0" (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 62, line 3: insert "... the *MODEL* does not explain the working ..." (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 66, eq. 29: The last "or" is empty. (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 107 3rd par: … the rainbow become*s* white; … (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 107 chal 124: Why does this lead to polarization? (no "is") (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 186 the footnote at the bottom: "it contains only about 2% of the body’s mass, is uses 25% of the energy". Should be "it", rather than "is". (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 3, p. 187 in Curiosities About the Brain: "the lecture performance will loose most of its..." should be "lose" (CS: thank you)


  • Vol. 4, p. 20, footnote line 4: replace "understood" by "understand" (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 4, p. 42, "this it not the only" -> "this is not the only" (CS: thank you)
  • Vol. 4, p. 204, "That is a quantum effects" -> "That is a quantum effect" or "Those are quantum effects" (CS: thank you)

Misprints from edition 24.22 (volumes 1 to 5) corrected in edition 24.24

  • Vol. 1, p. 52: Fig. 25 contains no fractals (Linux only) (CS: what does this mean? Do you see the picture on the PC and not in Linux? With Adobe Reader?)
WinXP/Adobe Reader works fine. Ubuntu10.04/Gnome Document Viewer shows only the caption "n=1, n=2, ...", the Koch curve below is missing (other figures are OK). (CS: sounds more like a Viewer bug; all my figures are made in Illustrator, and the pdf is made for Adobe Reader.)
  • Vol. 1, p. 71, paragraph "What do the athletes Usain Bolt ...": insert space in "writing,_have ...".
  • Vol. 1, p. 71, paragraph "When a dancer ...": replace "it", "its" by "she/he", "her/his".
  • Vol. 1, p. 94, last sentence: two margin-references to vol. 4 overlap
  • Vol. 1, p. 101, Table 21, last entry: is the unit (uJ instead of uW) ok?
  • Vol. 1, p. 137, footnote: the 2nd. URL seems to be broken
  • Vol. 1, p. 140, last sentence: omit one "first"
  • Vol. 1, p. 141, footnote, 3rd paragraph, sentence "(In fact, Roald Amundsen ...": one "the" too much
  • Vol. 1, p. 150. Challenge 283 ny: The equation delta_phi = phi_bar - phi is incorrect for dimensional reasons (delta has dimension 1/(m*m))
  • Vol. 1, p. 179, last sentence: "Everybody know_s": insert "s"
  • Vol. 1, p. 182, close to Challenge 360 e: Coulomb friction is proportional to the normal force which on earth mostly is gravity.
  • Vol. 1, p. 214, close to "Ref. 184": The URL seems to be broken
  • Vol. 1, p. 214, Challenge 417 ny: It should be clarified, what is meant by "ideal".
  • Vol. 1, p. 222, fig. 156: Is it really a good idea to explain elementary symmetries with a picture which shows these symmetries only approximately?


Corrected misprints in edition 24.14 (volumes 1 to 5) and 24.25 (volume 6)

  • Volume 1, p 93; Mass of Neutrino: 210^-36kg - is it correct notation? (CS: no, a multiplication sign is missing after the 2; thank you!)
  • Volume 1, p 405; Bibliography item 10: Author name Richtmeyer should be Richtmyer, I believe. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 2, p 87; there a billions of ---> there are billions of ? (CS: yes, thank you!)


  • Volume 3, page 117: The essence of black bodies is that the colour _the_ have does not depend on the surface. (CS: yes, thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 123: All images are formed by transporting light in a useful _manned_ along known paths. (CS: yes, thank you!)


  • Volume 5, page 136: 137Cs has a decay product 137Ba, not 137B. (CS: yes, thank you!)


Corrected misprints in edition 24.13 (volumes 1 to 5) and 24.21 (volume 6)

  • Volume 1, page 38, in the footnote: Aristotle (384/3–322) --> 384/3–322BCE (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 404, reference 2: "The Karlsruhe Physics Course, free to download at ...". Maybe replace 'free to download' by 'free to download (english version)', because in the german version of their site there is no free download. They only send you to the Aulis Verlag for the printed books. (CS: correct, thank you!)


  • Volume 2, pg. 262, first paragraph: "through declining" --> "though declining". There is also a missing space at the beginning of the last sentence in the same paragraph, beginning with "Here..." (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 3, page 27, line 4 from bottom: Electricity is is not --> Electricity is not (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 57, line 4: "for a prize of" --> "for a price of" (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 4, page 15, first line: replace "behaves" by "behave". (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 5, page 69, Fig. 43: "plsama-deposited" --> "plasma-deposited?" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 5, page 72, Line 17: "Nobel price" --> "Nobel prize"? (CS: thank you; the error appears twice again in volume 5.)


  • Volume 6, page 78, "Common constituents", line 3 of first Einstein-citation: replace 'Gebliden' by 'Gebilden' (CS: thank you!)

Corrected misprints in edition 24.12 (volumes 1 to 5)

  • Volume 1, page 28, 6th point: "all motion happens in a way that minimize change" should be changed to "minimizes change". (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 29, challenge 10: The first use of a.m. and p.m. uses periods, while the second does not. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 29, challenge 14: "for ever" should be replaced with "forever". Should also be fixed in solution on page 366. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volumes 2 and 3, page 9, paragraph "A Request": The third bullet point ("What should corrected?") is self-referential. It should *be* corrected itself. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 3, page 39, 3rd paragraph, first sentence: Change "van" to "can". (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 39, under heading "Which currents flow inside magnets?": The 2nd and 3rd sentence should be formulated less strict: The fact that a coil (i.e. a special experimental arrangement) produces a magnetic dipole field does not prove the lack of magnetic monopoles. Just as the fact that a time-dependent magnetic field produces an electric dipole field does not prove the lack of charge monopoles. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 39, under heading "Which currents flow inside magnets?": fifth sentence. (As above.) I would replace "this must be also the case inside lodestone ..." by "we may expect this also to be the case inside lodestone ...". (The correctness of this expectation is then shown in the following paragraph.) (CS: thank you!)
    • A note by CS: Thank you for these suggestions - I have not looked at that volume for several years. Whenever I answer - e.g. by saying "Thank you" - it means that I have corrected my manuscript already. Thank you for being as strict as possible!
    • Thank you, I love Your Book.
  • Volume 3, page 43, equation 15: In the upper line, the left hand side is a 4-vector, the right hand side is a 4-tensor (if u is the energy density). (CS: no, u is the 4-velocity, but it should be bold as well. I'll improve the sentences.)
  • Volume 3, page 44, 1st paragraph: "In the expression for the Lorentz acceleration (15) it is understood that we sum over greek indices ..." : In Eq. 15, there are no indices. (CS: thank you, that sentence should go after 16 in the footnote.)


Not yet done

  • Volume 2, German version: Many pictures contain texts in English. (This is not the case in the French translation, e.g.) (Only german/french/Vol 2 checked) (CS: I know, I need help for doing this - somebody who has Illustrator ...)


Corrected misprints in edition 24.19 of volume 6

  • Volume 6, page 255, paragraph "Black hole limits", 1st sentence: "In many was, black holes are ...": replace "was" by "ways". (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 255, paragraph "Black hole limits", 2nd sentence: replace "hole" by "holes" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 263, line 2: replace "hvae" by "have" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 263, line 3 (Challenge 144 ny): Can black hole radiation *be* seen ... (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 265, footnote: replace "contrast" by"contrasts" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 281, paragraph "Leptons", 3rd sentence: replace "ate" by "are" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 303, paragraph 3 in the middle: "For example, tangle with simple structure ...": replace "tangle" with "tangles". (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 304, footnote, 1st sentence: replace "... the existence Higgs turn out ..." by "... the existence *of the* Higgs *should* turn out ..." (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 316, section "Predictions on the quantization ...": replace "electromgnetic" by "electrom*a*gnetic" (CS: thank you!)


Corrected misprints in edition 24.18 of volume 6

  • Volume 6 , page 245 , fig. 66: If i correctly understand the model, each strand has exactly two 'tails'. Thus any particle must have an even number of 'tails'. In fig. 66, however, each of the two masses has five tails. Is this correct? (CS: You are right, this is a bad mistake; one tail is missing in each particle!)

Corrected misprints in edition 24.12 (24.16 for volume 6)

  • Volume I to V, page 4: the edition is 24.1 (see page 3), but the text on page 4 says "twenty-third" and "vicesima tertia".
  • Volume I, in Challenge 20, Chapter 1, on page 30: Chathurangam should be changed to "Chaturanga".
  • Volume I, in Figure 46 on page 72 of the first volume. The correct spelling is "antelope" not "antilope."
  • Volume I, on page 134: "The highest value every measured" should be "The highest value ever measured"
  • Volume I, on page 363: the reference to Petit's science comics web site should be www.jp-petit.ORG instead of www.jp-petit.COM.
  • Volume I, note 38, p. 408, vous citez les livres de John Barbour. Or il s'agit de Julian Barbour.
  • Bertrand, not Betrand Russell.
  • Volume 4, page 13, last line has extra word “how” and says ”and how how all colours in nature are formed”.

Corrected misprints in edition 23.14

  • Spellings "organize" and "organise" are both used. (CS: corrected in the next edition.)
  • Volume 6, page 165, third paragraph, second line, "rotation by of the" -> rotation of the. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 169, second line, "square root of" -> square of (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 179, in the figure e^iπ -> e^iπ/2. Because in text you say that "phase rotated by π/2 (thus a core rotated by π)". (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 181, B = ∇ × B -> B = ∇ × A (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 190, third paragraph, "We note that the in ..." -> We note that in .... (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 207, fourth line of fourth paragraph, "tangles are move" -> tangles move (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 223, last paragraph, second line, "physical space is defined any more" -> is not defined (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 259, last line, "rotation by π/2" -> rotation by π (CS: thank you, the misprint occurs twice, also on page 276.)

Corrected misprints in edition 23.12

  • Volume 1, page 46, line 2: typo: "... the set of positions an objects occupies..." should read "... the set of positions an object occupies...".


  • Volume 3, page 42, eq. 11 in footer: On the righthand side, the first row of the determinant should not be signs, but unit vectors ex, ey, ez. (CS: ok, I'll put both)
  • Volume 3, page 42, eq. 11 in footer: The lefthand side should read v x B instead of a x b. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 44, first line, I think the W in eq. 15 is power not work. It is in fact Fv witch has the unit of power. (CS: you are right, of course.)
  • Volume 3, page 71, 2nd footnote: The second appearance of the index mu should be lower, not upper. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 77: The paragraph "Duality, btw ... our mountain ascent" appears twice. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 3, page 126, "The lens then produces a real image", considering the sentences before and after this, it seems you say that when an object is between a converging lens and its focus, it produces a real image and when the object is farther than focus, it produces a virtual image. I think the reverse is true. (CS: you are right; an unfortunate error.)
  • Volume 3, page 282, Ref. 13: The URL is broken. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 4, page 75, the line above eq. 30, transformation A -> transformation T (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 137, under eq. 82, the collapse tie -> time (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 190, second paragraph, first line, "we shall the" -> e.g. "we shall introduce the" (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 194, I think the relation in the third paragraph bar{XY}=bar{YX} is bar{XY}=bar{Y}bar{X}. Otherwise multiplication of quaternion will be commutative. (CS: thank you, I wrote it that way, but there is a spacing problem that I will correct.)
  • Volume 4, page 195, eq. 124, since in the text it is said that rotation around l is done first, it's corresponding quaternion should be the rightmost in eq. 124, (CS: thank you!)
  • volume 4, page 200, line 7 from bottom and page 190, line 2, previous chapter -> previous volume. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 202, eq. 141, third line b.d -> b.c (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 204, challenge 14, reverse the << sign. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 4, page 190, The existence of multiplication identity (1a=a) is not included in the definition of ring. (CS: Uses differ; most - but not all - authors include the axiom in the definition of a ring. I am mixing the two options and will have to correct this. Thank you.)


  • Volume 5, page 92, end of first paragraph, "elfimaszz", is it something or just a typo? (CS: thank you, it is the internal latex reference to the challenge solution.)
  • Volume 5, page 304, the answers of challenges 79 and 80 should be swapped. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 5, page 215, second paragraph, fourth line, "orientation change for incomplete strokes is observer-invariant" -> observer-dependent (or maybe I am just confused) (CS: you are right, this must be corrected.)
  • Volume 5, page 281, last paragraph, second line "an algebra is a vector space (over a field K) that is also a ring". Since general algebras necessarily do not have a unit and are not necessarily associative, I think it's better to add the "unital associative" term in parentheses before "algebra" in the above sentence. Also in page 282, sixth line from bottom, its useful to mention that algebras in physics are unital in addition to associative. Because the existence of a unit is not included in (139). (CS: ok, thank you!)


  • Volume 6, page 25, the paragraph before eq.5, "The upper action bound" -> The upper speed bound (CS: it should be both, in fact, i.e. "upper action and speed bound".)
  • Volume 6, page 39, the paragraph before eq.48, "... has the dimensions of speed" -> inverse speed (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 44, the line below eq.64, "at resent" -> at present (CS: thank you!)


Corrected misprints in edition 23.11 (volume 1, 2 and 4) and 23.9 (volumes 3 and 5)

  • Volume 3, comments on magnetic field limit. In QED, there is no limit ( Phys.Lett.B674:344-347,2009 http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.3413v2 ). And of course in classical electrodynamics there is no limit to the magnetic field, as seen easily from Lorentz boosts ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_electromagnetism_and_special_relativity ). The discussion of magnetic field limits, and other conjectures on Planck units, are best left to your "Speculation on unification" Vol 6. (CS: true, QED has no field limits, nor has special relativity and/or classical electrodynamics, as also stated in the text; but *nature* has a limit. If you set G to 0, the limit becomes infinite, and then you get QED and/or classical electrodynamics.)
  • Volume 2, page 80: I think 'gamma' is missed in equations 73 and 74. Also in equation 74 the sign between x(t) and dtv(t) must be a plus. (CS: yes indeed - I will correct this.)
  • Volume 2, page 90: In the last line, I think v11 must be v01 or maybe v12. If by v11 you mean proper velocity of observer 1 it's better to clarify it and do something with the expression v11=0 in figure 53. (CS: yes, it must be v12.)
  • Volume 2, page 100: In line second paragraph you say: "force and power appear together in the definition of 4-force; we can thus say that the upper bound is valid for every component of a force, as well as for its magnitude." I'd like to mention that even though speed limit is c the components of 4-velocity can be infinite, because they contain the gamma factor. I think this is also the case for 4-force. Also you say the same thing in page 74 challenge 103. (The more I think the more I doubt what I said above. I'm confused. So even if I'm wrong, I think it is useful to clarify it in the text.) (CS: true, the wording is bad. The statement of general relativity is a strong one, namely that even using the gamma factor, the maximum value for the 3-force cannot be overcome. I will clarify this. Thank you for this remark!)
  • Volume 2, page 150: I think it is better to write equation 152 like equation 11 in volume 3 with plus sign in between. Therefore eq. 153 and 155 can be written with plus sign and eq. 156 will need a minus. In this manner everything is consistent with eq. 161. (CS: Thank you - I will recheck and correct all this.)
  • Volume 2, page 169: section title: how to measured -> measure (CS: Thank you.)
  • Volume 2, page 173: eq. 191 has to give a positive result for K<0, so I think it needs a minus before K. Also in line 4: cam only one -> came. (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 2, page 174: The sentences are a little misplaced. I think the first sentence in second paragraph belongs to the first paragraph. like this: "We start by defining what we mean by curvature in space-time in another way, which allows us to generalize it to time as well." (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 2, page 177: Nabla is usually for gradient. In equation 198 you should use delta for Laplacian. (CS: Thank you!)


  • Volume 3, page 199: "The real numbers are those surreals whose length is not larger than infinity and that do not have periodic endings with a period of length 1. In other words, the surreals distinguish the number 0.999999... from the number 1, whereas the reals do not." This seems to suggest 0.1666666... is a surreal number, but not a real number. (CS: Of course you are right! The sentence is really bad. I will correct this.)
  • Volume 3, page 264: "By the way, also fields with long wavelengths penetrate metals; remote controls regularly use frequencies of 25 kHz to achieve this." Remote controls use IR, which has a wavelength on the same order as visible light. Remote controls do amplitude modulate the IR at frequencies on the order of 10 kHz, but that doesn't help it penetrate metals. Also, I don't believe IR from a remote will penetrate metals. The receivers are just very sensitive to that modulation frequency, so the IR can reflect around the room and still work. As one last comment, your immediately previous statement leading up to this is "Of course, if the outside field varies so quickly that the rearrangement cannot follow, fields can enter the Faraday cage." Which makes it unclear why a slow field would not be stopped, since the charges have plenty of time to rearrange. Clarifying this discussion would be helpful. (CS: I was talking about remote controls that use 25 kHz carrier frequency, i.e. extremely long radio waves, not the IR remote controls for TV - I will clarify this.)
  • Volume 3, page 265, Challenge 204: While this was probably not your intention, your answer seems to imply that current also comes in discrete units, which is not correct. Current (just like velocity) can be any of a continuous value. (CS: Of course you are right; I will clarify this.)

Corrected misprints in edition 23.10 (volume 1, 2 and 4) and 23.8 (volumes 3 and 5)

  • Volume 1, page 216: last line in foot notes "All the mappings described by these special types of matrices are one-to-one". I think it is wrong. At least, I'm sure that a real matrix (A*=A) can be singular (det=0). In addition, a unitary matrix specifies more than just that the transformations being one-to-one and invertible; this is a feature of any non-singular matrix (unitary matrices are non-singular matrices which their determinant has norm 1). Therefore I found the paragraph about unitary matrix (on the same page) somehow confusing. (CS: true - it will be ok in the next edition.)
  • Volume 1, page 226: last paragraph "An most elegant" -> the most elegant. "in final third part" -> in final part (or maybe you mean in three final parts!) (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 227: eq. 88 -> L=1/2mv^2 - 1/2kx^2 (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 237: line 3, "is limited to a waves" -> a wave. In footnote, delta x -> delta(x). (CS thank you - this is now on page 240 in the new edition 23.9)
  • Volume 1, page 248: line 8, "sound speed decreases with temperature" -> sound speed increases with temperature. Otherwise the reasoning that follows will not be correct. Also in the next paragraph "Sound speed decreases with temperature, and increases with pressure". In an ideal gas the speed of sound is independent of pressure. Take a look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound. (CS: you are right; both instances will be corrected in the next edition. The page number is 251 in edition 23.9)
  • Volume 1 page 252: line 4, if by k you mean wave vector, it must be w=sqrt(g/k) (CS: Hm, c=sqrt(g/k), but w=sqrt(gk) !)
  • Volume 1 page 303: you say that egg white hardens at 62 (less than yolk), in page 392 challenge 600 you say it hardens at 70 (more than yolk), which one is true? (CS: will be clarified; 70 to 80 degrees is for complete hardening, 62 is for the beginning of hardening. Note that the various page and challenge numbers have changed in edition 23.9)
  • Volume 2, page 72: in equation 57 a 'c' is missed, m(dt/dtau,dx/dtau) -> m(c dt/dtau,dx/dtau)
  • Volume 2, page 72: (challenge 100) In the formula, v12 must be the subscript for gamma. Also it is better to write M2 like m1 with small character.
  • Volume 6, page 26: I'm not sure but according to page 298 in volume 1, the equation for smallest entropy is S>k/2. and also for next equation below. (CS: the limit equation should be S >=k, and the indeterminacy relation should have k/2.)


The following misprints from edition 23.8 have already been corrected in edition 23.9:

  • Volume 1, page 43: in 7th row of table 8, circahoral -> circhoral (CS: Ok!)
  • Volume 1, page 52: 2nd paragraph: 'These are the central assumptions in the first two parts of this adventure', there now more parts. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 52: I think in previous editions figure 25 was drawn, but it's not anymore. (CS: what precisely do you mean? The figure shows up in the file.) sorry maybe the problem is from my pdf viewer (it's not acrobat reader) (CS: can you see the films with your reader? If so, let me know, I will mention it on the site.). Unfortunately it does not play videos (yet). (CS: A pity.)
  • Volume 1, page 52: "infinite" in the figure caption is in the wrong font. (CS: done.)
  • The content of the appendix about units and measurement is different in each volume (CS: this is on purpose, to make the whole thing interesting) and there are dead challenge links in early volumes. (CS: this is not ...; I now corrected the links in all volumes; they will be ok in the next edition.)
  • Volume 1, page 131: middle of the page v=dv/dt -> v=dx/dt. and equation 32 must be a=v^2/r. (CS: thank you, these are really bad...)
  • Maybe you would like to put figure 68 in page 105 somewhere near page 112 where it belongs. There is no mention of parallax before page 112. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 140: line 3 and 10, a/g -> g/a (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 149: In the third paragraph you first consider constant k as GM when you write a=k/r^2. Therefore the largest distance that a body with energy E can be from the Sun is R=-km/E, m is the mass of the body. (CS: true, the first k is GM, the others are GMm; I need to correct that. PS. If you email me your name, I'll add it in the Acknowlegments. Thank your for all this!) You have already added my name, thank you. (CS: Ok. Then thank you again for all your help.)
  • Volume 1, Page 198, Footnote: Third Paragraph, Line 3 should be: In those times[[,]] computers [[were]] not available, ... (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 359, Challenge 29: "but not experiments has yet probed" (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 2, page 70: In challenge 94 you say that motion with light speed have null velocity vector. But according to the definition of 4-velocity, magnitude of 4-velocity is c^2 for v<c and it is unidentified (0/0) for v=c. (CS: This will be clarified in the next edition; the phase and group 4-velocity of light is indeed null.)
  • Volume 2: Although it can be understood from the text, but there are some notation mistypes I'd like to mention: page 70, in equation 52 and also the relation in previous line 'a' must be bold in 'va' multiplication. Also in the next line 'B' must be bold 'BB'. In page 73 in equation 60 'v' must be bold in 'Fv'; also in the relation in the next paragraph. In page 75 equation 63 'k' must be 'L' according to equation 62. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 4, page 55, Figure 32 caption, Raleigh -> Rayleigh (CS: thank you!)

The following misprints from edition 23.7 have already been corrected in edition 23.8:

  • Volume 1, page 63, Challenge 97s: The Moon’s angualr size -- The Moon’s angular size (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 125 line 5: "The last ice age had is peak" -> had a peak (or had its peak). (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 130: maybe you would like to move figure 95 some-where near page 82 where it belongs to. (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 161: It is unkonw whether the mass of teh Earth increases -- It is unknown whether the mass of the Earth increases (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 215: If the 8 matrices are an irreducible representation of D4, then why you say that the complete list of possible irreducible representations of the group D4 is given by singlets, doublets and quartets. (CS: thank you, should be "also includes" instead of "is given by". Hm, I must still check the content; I do not know this any more...)
  • Volume 1, page 239 second line: "depend exclusively on the on the ratio" -> depend exclusively on the ratio (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 264 last line in footnote: "Especially if we the imagine particles" -> Especially if we imagine particles (CS: thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 413: There is a 'sin' missing in the denominators of equations 138 and 139 (challenge 403). (CS: yes, thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 414: One of the denominators in eq. 140 should have been 1 - sin phi (challenge 409). (CS: of course, thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 414 challenge 415: "That is the reason that later on the group D4 is only called approximate symmetry group." -> ... approximate symmetry group of figure 153. (CS: thank you!)


  • Volume 6, page 312: Title should be "... je rêve, ..." instead of "rève". (CS: thank you!)

The following misprints have already been corrected in editions 23.5 and 23.6:

  • Volume 1, page 30: 'How much time would all the wheat fields of the world take to produce the necessary rice?' Infinity time, because wheat fields produce zero rice (CS: thank you, good point :-)
  • Volume 1, page 67: '... we fill find ...' should be 'we WILL find' (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 70: 'spince' should be 'SPINE' (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 97: The sentence 'In summary, in addition to mass and energy, everyday linear motion also conserves energy.' should probably read 'In summary, in addition to mass and momentum, everyday linear motion also conserves energy.' (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 134: 'you can choose the rotation axis in may different ways' Should be ...in many different... (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 141, Table 25: 'Rome 9.9.8034755m/s2' should be 'Rome 9.8034755m/s2' (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 176: I suspect the first sentence 'All those types of motion that can be described when the only permanent property of a body is mass, form the mass of a body is its only permanent property form what is called mechanics.' should sound like 'All those types of motion that can be described when the only permanent property of a body is mass, form what is called mechanics.' (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 178, Line 20: "motion.)" fraction should be removed. (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 404: 'The friction if the tides on Earth are the main cause.' Maybe: ...friction 'of' the tides... (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 1, page 407, Challenge 294: In the third sentence, it should be 'In fact', not 'In fcat' (CS: Thank you!)


  • Volume 2, page 15: Page ?? (was probably a cross reference to one of the other volumes) (CS: thank you)


  • Volume 5: (CS: thank you; these are all corrected in the next revision!) Here are some notes I compiled reading ch5 of your book. It might make it easier to have a review/draft copy available with line numbers at the side of the page, and then a separate "production version" without line numbering. Here are the notes:
  • Volume 5, p140 line 1 in table 12: "neodynium" should be "neodymium"
  • Volume 5, p140 line 14 in table 12: insert "thorium-radon method"
  • Volume 5, p140 line 15 in table 12: compare half-life value of 5715a here with that given in line 2 of paragraph 5 on p139: 5568a
  • Volume 5, use of "a" for "years" not generally recognized in US colloquial English.
  • Volume 5, p124 para 1 line 3 : not bad... unfortunately the word "not" is not capitalized here unless artistic license is utilized...
  • Volume 5, p124 para 1 line 4: "also these activities are" should be "these activities are also"... but I'd redraft the entire sentence: "These activities have been in strong decline since 1985, with the exception of ..."
  • Volume 5, p124 para 1 line 5: I'd rewrite this, too: from "Despite the short time of activity, the history of nuclear physics is impressive;" to "The history of nuclear physics is impressive, given the short time this field has been in existence: It ..."
  • Volume 5, p124 para 2 line 1: delete "has"
  • Volume 5, p124 para 2 line 2: change "allows to" to "allows us to"
  • Volume 5, p124 para 3 line 6: The sentences "Interestingly, the absorption level depends on the chemical compound the nucleus is built into. Thus the absorption value will depend on the chemical environment." are true, but perhaps not very illuminating. My suggestion: "Interestingly, the absorption level of the nucleus under consideration is dependent on the characteristics of the electron distribution on neighboring nuclei, as well as characteristics present in the neighboring nuclei themselves, in the chemical compound." Streamfortyseven 08:12, 19 November 2009 (CET)


  • Volume 6, preface, first line: curiousity must be curiosity. (CS: thank you)
  • Volume 6 page 23, 12th draft. Last paragraph should begin "The limit for ..." or some such. (CS: thank you)
  • Volume 6, page 108: "7. The Dirac construction for spin provides a model for fermions that mathces observa-" should be "matches" (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 112: "To sumup: despite all attemopts" should be "attempts" (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 119: last line of second to last para, "number f ic conjectured" should be "number f is conjectured" (CS: thank you for your help - and happy Christmas! I seem to have forgotten the final spelling check - sorry for that.)
  • Volume 6, page 127: Summary of the Fifth... "as resulting form extended" should be "from" (CS: Thank you!)
  • Volume 6, page 134: second from last line the radical is overprinted. (CS: thank you; this happens a few times; I must solve the latex problem behind it.)


The following misprints have already been corrected in the 23rd edition, which is now online.

  • Table 13 of your most recent edition. The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of Jupiter is listed as 240 m/s^2 when I think it should be 24 m/s^2 (about 2.5g). (CS: yes, of course)
  • Page 32, This link is broken: http://aris.ss.uci.edu/cogsci/personnel/hoffman/hoffman.html (CS: yes, the new one is http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff )
  • Page 43, figure caption. Change "scales" -> "scale". (CS: thank you for all these suggestions!)
  • Page 73,Paragraph 4, Line 4, a typo in "ist path or trajectory" (CS: ok)
  • Page 75,Paragraph 2, Line 5, a typo in "It is has a ...." (CS: ok)
  • Page 88, "It assumes that objects can be followed along there paths." there -> their (CS: ok)
  • Page 211. "Tucholski" should read "Tucholsky" (CS: ok)
  • Page 231. Equation 84. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: thank you for all these suggestions!)
  • Page 235, "Kirchoff" should be "Kirchhoff". Also on pages 727 and 1544. (CS: ok)
  • Page 241. Equation 91. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 274. This link is broken: www.iwf.de/NR/rdonlyres/EEFA7FDC-DDDC-490C-9C49-4537A925EFE6/793/C148292.smil. (CS: I found this one: http://www.iwf.de/iwf/do/mkat/details.aspx?Signatur=C+14825 )
  • Page 324. The link members.aol.com/jeff94100/witte.jpg is broken. The image still survived here: http://ceslava.com/blog/da-igual-origins-of-equal-sign/. (CS: ok)
  • Page 373. Equation 115. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 373. Equation 116. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 380 (first sentence). Change "if possible if" -> "is possible if". (CS: ok)
  • Page 381. Equation 126. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 384. Equation 130. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 517. Equation 281. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 520. In the quote change "the understood" -> "he understood". (CS: ok)
  • Page 523. Something wrong with formulae (283) and (284). (CS: not anything I can see)
  • Page 537. Equation 310. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 541. Equation 317. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 542. Equation 318. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 542. Equation 319. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 543. Equation 320. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 546. Equation 327. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 555. Equation 354. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 558. Equation 356. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 560. Equation 364. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 583. Equation 386. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 612. Equation 410. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 656. Misplaced "(" in Challenges 656 and 657. (CS: ok)
  • Page 692. Equation 437. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Page 714. Equation 460. E x b instead of E x B. Also in text immediately following. (CS: ok)
  • Page 839. "Grau, treuer Freund ..." should read "Grau, teurer Freund ..." (cf. http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Faust_I) (CS: ok)
  • Page 1000. Replace "it easy to see" -> "it is easy to see". (CS: ok)
  • Page 1030. Equation 615. \Delta written instead of -\nabla^2. (CS: ok)
  • Page 1143. Missing Reference for the "violin player" statement. Even if such a reference exists, please state how reliable it is (or simply remove the statement), because this sounds extremely a lot like pure speculation. This statement made me question the scientific integrity of the book (before seeing this statement I was finding it very stimulating). (CS: the method mentioned is used since many centuries. The reason that a statement you do not believe makes you question the 1100 pages you read before remains a puzzle.)
  • Page 1429. Equation 844. \left( \right) for prettiness. (CS: ok)
  • Whenever I follow a link that leads to a solution of a challenge, the solution appears just above the edge of the monitor. This is quite inconvenient. (CS: I asked for help on this; I will do my best.)


The following misprints have already been corrected in the second printing of the 22nd edition.

  • Page 422. Equation (148) would look better with \left( \right). Same comment for equations 192, 194, 220, 226, 497, 455, 642, 633, 636, 764. (CS: Ok, thank you)
  • Page 474. First full paragraph, line 3. Change "In the this respect" to "In this respect". (CS: Ok, thank you)
  • Page 475. Line 4. Change "horsepowers" to "horsepower". (CS: Ok, thank you)
  • Page 711. You say "total energy E_{nergy}", and also use this in equation 460. Looks a bit funny. (CS: Ok, thank you; so far this is the best option)
  • Page 712. Your covariant Lorentz force equation has b^\mu, but I seem to recall that this should (somewhat non-intuitively) actually be subscript mu. Why b (ie: b^\mu) for du^\mu/d\tau? You use du/d\tau in equation 436 earlier (which is also index upper instead of lower) (CS: I redefined b more clearly; the index position is not important in special relativity; I prefer the upper ones.) (PJ: thanks for the clarification. I see what I misunderstood too. You wrote, F_\nu^\mu, which balanced the index up on the LHS. I agree that your way is nicer. Index up consistently for both vector quantities).
  • Page 1042. \bar\psi isn't defined, nor are the matrixes \gamma^\mu. I didn't see the Dirac gamma matrixes defined in the relativity section with the four vector treatment either, but perhaps it was and I missed it. Even if these aren't covered in detail a mention of what these are would be nice. Also D slash isn't showing up properly (slash is following the D's) (CS: thank you)
  • Page 1054. b^\dagger is used without mention of what the dagger does. Later reading (around equation 662) one can see from context that this is probably a conjugate operation of some sort. (CS: Ok, thank you)


  • Front page of website ("Question of the day"): "Imagine a rubber band that is attached to a horse at one end and attached to a wall at the other end. The rubber is infinitely stretchable. On the rubber, near the wall, there is a snail. Both the snail and the horse start moving with typical speeds. Can the snail reach the horse?" - would it be clearer to write "The rubber can stretch to any length, but is otherwise like a normal rubber band."? 'Infinitely stretchable' was ambiguous for this physics grad: infinitesimal elastic constant, or no limit on maximum extension? I feel as well that 'infinite' is such a squirrely beast it's best treated carefully. (CS: there is no difference between 'infinitesimal elastic constant' and 'no limit on maximum extension' ...) (DI: Of course, there is a difference. No limit on maximum extension means the string is never torn apart however long extended, this can be true even if the elastic constant is finite; infinitesimal elastic constant on the other side does not assume that the string is unbreakable - it can lose elasticity upon being extended, as elastic constant is usually defined at zero deformation.) (CS: well, there might be a difference, but the wording is clear enough.)
  • Ich wollte nur anmerken, dass die geradseitige Kopfzeile, die anscheinend "[Kapitelname] PUNKT [Section-Nummer] [Section-Name]" sein soll, die section number nur für geradzahlige sections ausgibt und bei ungeradenzahligen sections die Nummer weglässt. (CS: Wo genau? in Part 2 stimmt es nämlich; in Part 6 gibt es für alle Zahlen Ausnahmen)
  • Page 4 - "26th olympiad and the fourth year of the 28th olympiad" - "olympiad" should be capitalised (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 17, list of contributors: John Heumann is mentioned twice. (CS: thank you.)
  • Page 24, footnote *: ref should probably be '\ref' (CS: Thank you, it should be \appendixref - this error appears several times.)
  • Page 25, last paragraph: "...whether to understand it more precisely or more deeply, your are taking steps up Motion Mountain." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 30, bottom. "Throwing is one of the first physical experiment ..." Should be 'experiments', plural. (CS: thank you.)
  • Page 31 bottom left: the flip film should start in page 31, but they only start in page 39. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 34, footnote **, last line: "for quite while" should be "for quite a while" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 36, figure 13 "F I G U R E 13 What is the speed of the rolls? Are other roll shapes possible?" Should be 2 instances of the word 'rollers'. (CS: thank you.)
  • Page 36, challenge 23, What is the meaning of a "frictionless" ball? Isn't it the interaction of the ball and the table that is frictionless? And in this case, wouldn't the ball slide instead of roll, as suggested in the solutions? (CS: frictionless rolling is also imaginable; anyway, sliding or rolling changes the problem only slightly.)
  • Page 37, note *: Niccolo' Tartaglia was not, in fact, Venetian, it was from Brescia. Minor detail but it is the same to say that J. Joyce was a londoneer, because London ruled over Ireland, on that years. (CS: Ok, thank you.)
  • Page 40, fig. 15 caption, and on at leat one other place: "pilot tube" should be "Pitot tube". Figure 15: the L-shaped tube used to measure an airplane's speed is incorrectly labeled as a "pilot tube." It is actually a pitot tube named after French scientist Henri Pitot. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 47: add "copyright Stefan Pietrzik" under the photo of the sundial. Add under the analemma picture later in the text that the precision sundial has the same shape. (CS: Thank you.)
  • The fourth line from the bottom of page 47 contains a grammatical error at the article "an." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 61, Challenge 58 s, penultimate sentence: "rubbed band" should read "rubber band" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 61, "where are the less obvious spots from which the a man can have exactly the same trip (forget the bear now) that was just described and being at home again?" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 73: Comma should be "Most animals, regardless of their size, achieve ..." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 73, Figure 42: Image is missing. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 73, Figure 43: The "secant slope: Δy/Δt" label is running over the "Δy" label making it difficult to read either. Similarly, the "derivative slope: dy/dt" label is difficult to read because the red tangent line interferes with it. I suggest repositioning the labels so they can be read more easily. (CS: Thank you.)^
  • Page 89, Table 15: there are 2 differing values for "Planck momentum" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 92, Footnotes: labels for "Challenge 150 s" and "Page 94" cover one another so as to be illegible. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 111, 6th line of first paragraph: not "el Ninño" but "El Niño" - note both the capital E and the spelling. See, for example, http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/ (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 111, Challenge 186 s, last sentence: "how it work?" should be "how it works?" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 129, "It is possible to make a spinning top with a metal paper clip. It is even possible to make one of those tops with [that] turn onto their head when spinning." Remove 'with' (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 133, just before Eq. 29: 'inestigation' (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 155, sentence before Eq. 47: "a bungee cord" might be preferable over "a rubber". Colloquially, "a rubber" refers to a condom, which is not what is meant here. Besides, the material rubber is only one component in a proper bungee cord. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 158, Challenge 300 s: What is the [relationship?] between a stone... (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 167, Challenge 338 r: to weak -> too weak (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 168, Challenge 335: “But there are places, such as on the coast of ,”. The place name is missing. (CS: Thank you, this should be "Vietnam")
  • Page 230, 1st paragraph, last sentence: "..by predators to detect herring, and they might even by used by future fishing vessels." should be "..might even be used...". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 232: "quicktime" should be capitalised to "QuickTime" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 238, Table36, 8th row: '5hPa bellow atmospheric pressure' should be '5kPa ...'. (CS: No, this is correct: 5 mbar is 5 hPa)
  • Page 238, Table36, 9th row: 'Healthy human blood pressure: systolic, diastolic 17kPa, 11kPa' should maybe be changed to 'differential pressure' or 'above atmospheric pressure'. (CS: I'll do this.)
  • Page 243, near 'Challenge 464': 'sped' should be 'speed'. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 245, bottom: "blood circultion speeds" should be "blood circulation speeds". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 247 : the paperboat record is now 5132 g (CS: Thank you.)
I wasn't careful enough. Wikipedia Leidenfrost point is without reference that will confirm it. I checked "boiling point" of oil at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil and the Leidenfrost point of 220C seemed to me too high. Nevertheless all the references to Leidenfrost point of water that I found where for the clean surface. No reference to water droplets on oil films. Only reference to water on cooking oil I found at http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0031-9120/24/5/312/pev24i5p300.pdf where author mentioned that oil film will remove roughness and decrease Leidenfrost temperature. (CS: I saw one other article quoting 220 C; but I'll look for more.)
  • Page 260, 4th line from the bottom: Text from previous page is mixed into the table. (CS: thank you.)
  • Page 263, last paragraph: My understanding of the text is that decrease of entropy of Earth will make it hotter. I would say that it is opposite. (CS: thank you.)
  • Page 265, the gas law is pV = kNT and not pV = (3/2)kNT (CS: this is really a bad one...)
  • Page 275: The answer to the Challenge 539s seems to have no relation to the question. (CS: improved)
  • Page 283, "Oscillons in sand are [a] simple example[s] for a general it is still un[c]lear..."
  • Page 288, 290, Challenges 580,581,584: There are links but no solutions (links to solutions are bad). (CS: in fact, I have no solutions there)
  • Page 290, "Like for all complex movements, learning then [them] is o... You can go tho [to] the extreme..." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 293 "One is that the information of the universe cannot be summarized in a book; them [then] a perfect physics book is again impossible." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 361, Challenge 539: It seems this is not solution to the Challenge 539. (CS: yes there is, after 535, but the ordering is wrong and the answer is terse ...)
  • Page 312, Ref 206: Citation is missing. (CS: yes, I need to find a good one.)
  • Page 313, Ref 219: link seems to be broken. (CS: should be this one: [1])
  • Page 331, Challenge 17: there needs to be a space between up and 'standard deviation'. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 332, in the text for Challenge 38, I believe the word "this" should be "thus". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 341, Challenge 112: "because they a falling bullet" -> "because a falling bullet". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 359, Challenge 464: I believe 'k' should be 'A2 sqrt(...)', not 'A1 A2 sqrt(...)' (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 361: "...step is to deduce the number number of these particles..." (CS: Thank you)
  • Page 388, last footnote, "instead of calling in" s/b "instead of calling it". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 391, "equations taht describe" typo (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 412, "In addition, every action of a system – such [as] a caress, a smile or a look – takes its energy from a reduction in mass." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 443, Ref 317, S. Stephan s/b S. Schiller. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 497: "Cat's-eyes" isn't usually hypenated. (CS: I used British writing, is done throughout the text, at least 9 times.)
  • Page 540, BC : first paragraph, read "The Earth’s solid core is too hot to be a permanent magnet" "too" and not "to"... (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 583, BC : second paragraph, "Lunokhod missions" instead of "Lunakhod missions" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 597, BC : footnote : "Ludimar Hermann" instead of "Ludimar Herrmann" (r in excess) (CS: Thank you.)
  • p. 598, 21st ed. As far as I know, the motto of Oxford University is not "sapientia felicitas" but "Dominus illuminatio mea". I haven't been able to trace "sapientia felicitas"; http://www.pwruff.de/sprachen/latein/dctr.htm quotes it from p. 47 of Mletzko, M.: Variatio delectat (Bamberg: C.C.Buchner 1998) but no primary source is given. (CS: it seems to be an inscription in Oxford, not its motto - thank you)
I have done a little more research, and found the following in an 1830 book entitled The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (link to Google Books version: "OXFORD, University, az. on a book, open, ppr. garnished or, on the dexter side, seven seals of the last; betw. three open crowns of the second, the words, Sapientia, felicitas. Note.— For several years past, these words have been omitted, and the following substituted in their stead, Dominus illuminatio mea". So it seems that "sapientia felicitas" was indeed the motto until relatively recently. I have no idea why it was changed.
CS: Here is even more, by the University itself: [2]
Fascinating. So we have at least three variants on the phrase, but I don't think any of them can actually be translated as "wisdom is happiness". The version from the 1830 book would be just "wisdom, happiness", and those from Oxford's website "of wisdom and happiness" and "by/with/from wisdom and happiness". But Oxford's website mentions that it may come from Aquinas' Summa contra gentiles, so perhaps the formulation there is different. I can't find a complete etext of Summa contra gentiles to check this.
CS: I found a etext of SCG, and the phrase appears there, but in an obscure corner. Better is the following question asked by Buridan in his Questions on Aristotle's rhetoric (II,49) [3]: "Utrum maxime sint invidiosi qui honorantur in sapientia et felicitate" or "Whether the most enviable people are those who are distinguished in wisdom and happiness." These ideas seem to go back to the Nicomachean Ethics, Book 10, Chapter 7 and 8
  • Page 600, BC : end of last paragraph, ")" missing : (The picture does not show... (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 640, Table 60: I think (looking at other tables) that this table should be zebra-striped. (CS: I'll think about it.)
  • Page 658, Table 65, entry for "Electric fence" is repeated. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 666, 4th line: "These structures allow one to count single electrons" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 668, equation 435. Divergence of E is missing the dot. (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 669, equation 436. Second line. think your \epsilon tensor is missing an index (cf equation: 459 which looks right). Divergence of B is also missing the dot. (CS: Thank you - in fact the error is worse than that: the two equations are better written separately.)
  • Page 675, equation 457. BC : There is a dot under the minus sign, and there is nothing in the numerator in the last fraction. Should the formula be "S_{\rm{EDC}} &= - m c^2\int \diffd \tau - \int q \phi + \int q v A + \int \frac{\e_{0}}{2}E^2 - \frac{1}{2\mu_{0}}B^2 \cp" ? (CS: thank you, this is a bad one; the correction you give is correct, provided that the integrals are reduced to only two in total, and that dt dV is added at the end.)
  • Page 784, BC : error in latex : "...partly in the following and partly in refsetnum." (CS: Thank you, should be \appendixref{setnum},i.e. "Appendix B" )
  • Page 787, BC : read "...actually even to the simpler ZF definition." intead of "...actually even to the simper ZF definition." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 787, BC : read "That is where the real fun starts." instead of "That is were the real fun starts." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 791, BC : error in latex : "...semi-ring, as explained in refsetnum." It seems that this error appear in the whole book (again in page 793, 795). (CS: Thank you, should be \appendixref{setnum}, i.e. "Appendix B" )
  • Page 803: footnote - Should be "Gabriel Tarde" instead of the current "Gabiel Tarde" (missing the r) (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 805, BC : read "Similarly, the specific statement..." instead of "Similarly, the the specific statement..." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 810, BC : read "Since about a thousand years,..." instead of "Since about a thosand years,..." and "that they have 'miraculously' suffered" instead of "that they have 'miracolously' suffered" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 816, BC : read "...avoiding three common mistakes..." instead of "...avoiding hree common mistakes..." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 819, "every scientists [scientist] is a friend of both of these" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 831, BC : read "...but unnecessary for apes or for pigs." instead of "...but unnecessary apes or for pigs." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 909, first line "The figure shows that the transverse field is related to the radial field E_r..." instead of E_t. (BC) (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 931, 1st para. Missing word ("terms"?) after "Both these useless...". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1065, 5th line. "...of atoms and rge necessity..." should probably be "...of atoms and the necessity..." Ciao CriCro! (CS: grazie, Lele!)
  • Page 1077, "L’horologe fait de la réclame pour le temps." (CS: grazie)
  • Page 1078, "Die Zukunft war früher auch besser." mi sembra strano, ma non so il tedesco quindi può essere OK. ciao (CS: grazie)
  • Page 1090, "Over 50 000 poisons are known, starting with water (usually kills is [when] drunk in amounts larger than about...However, no[t] at [all] poisons are chemical." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1097, "US-American physicistEdwin Hall" a blank is missing after "physicist" (CS: Thank you)
  • Page 1107, "In future, there is a high chance...", should probably read "In the future..." or "In future years...". (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1158, footnote: "Hess gold foils" -> "Hess used gold foils"? (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1166, 5 lines from bottom: "first man who thought" -> "first man thought" OR "first man who was thought"? (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1192, line 6 from bottom: "Despite this hiccup, ..." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1278, "Energy costs about 10 cents/kWh" Cents of Euro?, of US Dollar? (CS: the difference is smaller than the error bars)
  • Page 1280, "wait to [for] the universe to contract." (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1381, "Any attempt to divide space must stops [stop] when (or before) we reach Planck scales" (CS: Thank you.)
  • Page 1318, "In light of the above discussion, it may seem silly to [talk] about the age of the" (CS: Thank you.)


The misprints above will be corrected in the forthcoming "third printing" of the 21st edition. The misprints below have already been corrected into the present edition 21, of December 2007, now downloadable at the website:


  • All Figure and Table references are wrong by one unit. (CS: this will be corrected in the final edition of edition 21)
  • Page 37, Figure 14: Figure 13 is missed. There is problem in numbering of Figures throughout the book (misses by one). (Lithis: Not just Figure 13 is missed; any time two figures are horizontally adjacent, a figure number is skipped. Table numbers are off by one in the text, also.) (CS: thank you - this is corrected in the latest version)
  • Page 77, Line 14-15: "...; they have special clothes THAN press on the pilot’s bodies to ..." should be "clothes THAT press". (CS: thank you - I will include this correction in the final version 21)
  • Page 156, Challenge 287 s "What is cheapest was to switch gravity off..." should be "What is the cheapest way to switch gravity off..." (CS: thank you - I will include this correction in the final version 21)
  • Page 168, Challenge 336: Link to answer does not work (the answer is not in the book). (CS: please download the latest version: the challenge is now at page 167, and the link works)
  • Page 203, 5th paragraph: Explanation of water waves at page 203. Velocity of individual waves should be replaced with phase velocity. (CS: thank you - I will include this correction in the final version 21)
  • Page 344, Challenge 134 - 135: Text incomplete (last sentences of both Challenges) (CS: thank you - I will include this correction in the final version 21)
  • Page 359, Challenge 428: Reference to page 686 should be to 687 instead. (CS: thank you - I will include this correction in the final version 21)


The misprints below were all worked in into version 21, of December 2007, available at the web site.


  • Page 23, Challenge 2, 4th item: "near" appears twice. (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 32, very bottom: "also" twice in sentence. Added by VR (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 45: Speed of radio messages in space should be "299792458 m/s" not "299972458 m/s"? Moridin 11:59, 2 April 2007 (CEST) (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 98, Foucault's pendulum: sign error (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 127, citation: "How long is a day on the Moon? The answer is roughly 14 Earth-days. That is the time that it takes for the Moon to see the Sun again in the same position." 29 days is lunar day (one rotation), 14 days is sunny part of the day. (CS: thank you, this bad mistake will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 283, the first letter of chap. II does not obey the drop caps pattern of other chapters; however, section 5 does (the letter "L"), which it shouldn't, since it does not start a chapter. (Sorry if I'm being too picky, but I love the drop cap starting each line in the begining of a chapter.)
  • Page 289, "However, electromagnetism forbids the such a phenomenon" - Prob. shouldn't have "the". (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 290, footnote **: The book by Einstein is dated 1917 instead of 1997. (By JM) (CS: thank you, will be clarified in version 21; in fact both 1917 AND 1997 are correct)
  • Page 297: "We follow that the speed..." -> "We conclude that ..." or something like that? (CS: thank you, will be improved in version 21)
  • Page 310, ligne 8 : il manque un point : "as shown in Figure 165. Imagine that both" (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 322, avant dernier paragraphe : lire "...before and after neutron capture on one hand,.." au lieu de "...before and after neutron capture one one hand,..." (merci, sera corrigé dans la version 21)
  • Page 333, deuxième paragraphe, il manque un espace après la virgule et un point à la fin de la phrase : "...on a rotating circle, as shown in Figure 182." (merci, sera corrigé dans la version 21)
  • Page 345, very bottom: "vertcial" -> "vertical". (Thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 347 vers la fin lire "Atomic nuclei have a size of a few femtometres." instead of "Atomic nuclei have a size of a few femotometres." (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 412, BC : dernier paragraphe : lire "gravitodynamics" instead of "gravtitodynamics" (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 435, BC : avant-dernier paragraphe : read "near to the inverse square of the present radius of the universe" instead of "near to the square of the present radius of the universe" (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 445, BC : lire "...since they passed the orbit of Saturn." au lieu de "...since thy passed the orbit of Saturn." (manque e) (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 446, BC : read "...the word galaxy is just the original Greek term..." instead of "...th word galaxy is just the original Greek term..." (e missing again) (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 483, BC : third paragraph, capital letter : "The value is large..." instead of "the value is large..." (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 486, BC : "During the formation of planets, matter clumps together...", isn't it "lump" ? (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 507, BC : end of page (last line), read "...involving stars..." instead of "...invloving stars..." (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • Page 526, The footnote is cut off. It reads "The Kirlian effect, which allows one to make such intriguingly beautiful photographs, is due to a time-". This should be corrected. (CS: will try to correct in version 21; footnote continues on next page)
  • Page 534, BC : last footnote, read "...but his apparatuses were not sensitive enough." instead of "but his apparatuses where not sensitive enough." (merci, sera corrige dans la version 21)
  • page 594, Text following equation 454, should read: "where Delta x is the indeterminacy in position and Delta p the indeterminacy in momentum." (CS: both page and equation number are wrong...)
  • page 611, line 3 from above: loose ==> lose (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 757, equation 497: should have wavenumber instead of wavelength; by Daniel Huber (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 765, double "when when" in the first half of page (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 774, "if if" (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 781, "teh first time" (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 782, "can contains" (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 800, footnote: should be "received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1963", not "in 1993" (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 851, very top: change "their frequency" to "the accuracy of their frequency"; by Daniel Huber (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 852: change first "final" in matrix element of eq 582 to "initial"; by Daniel Huber (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 896: table at the top of the page looks horrible because second and third columns almost merge with each other. Also, "many other effect" (should be "effects"); by AM (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 897, top of the page: orphan line "black holes, are also being investigated"; by AM (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 902, "small but difference" (significant difference?); by AM (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 937, bottom: "phosphorous" should be "phosphorus" and mass number for phosphorus should be "31 15 P" instead of "4 15 P"; by AM (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 938, table 68: in highly radioactive beta and gamma emitters, "> 9" should be, I think, "> 10^9" (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Bottom of page 948: "such carbon, nitrogen or oxygen" should be "such as" by AM (CS: will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 959: "the Z boson was found found" (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 1074, Bibliography-Item 1105: There is still the old adress "www.dse.nl/motionmountain/..." mentioned and has to be updated to "www.motionmountain.net/...". (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Appendix A, third line: The word "naturally" doesn't share the big 'N' letter. (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • PDF bookmarks / Appendix A: The hiearchy "1. Latin, 1.1 Greek, 1.1.1 Hebrew" etc. seems unnatural, why not "1. Latin, 2. Greek, 3. Hebrew"? (CS: this is a dvips or ps2pdf bug; the levels are the same already)
  • Page 1163, middle of the first full paragraph: "the need fir systems" should be "the need for systems", I believe. (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 1212 / Challenge 1586: if z = a+ib is represented as M=(a,b;-b,a), then det M = |z|^2, not |z|. (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 1219, second line: The sentence starting with "Its generators obey since $i=...$" sounds awkward/unclear to me, maybe revise? (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 1255: Challenge 28 hint is between Challenge 82 and 83 hint, which seems somewhat odd. Moridin 11:27, 2 April 2007 (CEST) (CS: thank you, will be corrected in version 21)
  • Page 1281, Challenge 925: "Classical field can come out of a black hole because for an outside observer everything making it up is continuously falling, and nothing has actually crossed the horizon." Severel things are awkward. How about: "Classical fields can come out of a black hole, because for an outside observer everything that constitutes the black hole is continuously falling and has not crossed the horizon yet." (or something like that) (CS: thank you - will be improved in version 21)
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