What do fireworks, feelings and butterflies have in common? How do muscles work?
How do colours appear? What kinds of levitation are possible? Why can we see the stars? Is time travel possible? What is the maximum force found in nature? Which problems in physics are still open? This free physics textbook provides the answers – and guarantees as much pleasure as whatever else you enjoy most in life.
Enjoying physics
Teaching physics is hard work. In a typical class, only 20% of all pupils and students like physics, and 80% do not. This free text is written to change this. It is entertaining, surprising and challenging on every page. With little mathematics, starting from observations of everyday life, the text presents the best stories, images, movies and puzzles in physics. You will enjoy it as a teacher and as a pupil.
Physics teaching to those who dislike physics
This text provides material to attract more than 20% of all your pupils, because it motivates different types of characters. First of all, the explanations are written in a way that appeal both to people who prefer thinking in images and to those that prefer thinking in words. (A majority of pupils belong to the latter group - in contrast to most physics teachers.) Therefore, the text tells many stories, in addition to its many pictures. Furthermore, the content has been selected to attract both male and female readers and learners. Next, the text is written to appeal to composer and to competitor characters. The text also caters both for the experimentally and the theoretically inclined. Moreover, the content should appeal to those who like the natural sciences and to those who like the humanities. Finally, the story will motivate, entertain and startle both beginners and experts in physics - including teachers.
Physics teaching to girls
The colour pdfs tell about sport and animal life (mechanics, gravity and heat), about the sky at night (relatvity 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, radioactivity and nuclear physics). More about this can be found here.
Teaching with passion
Motion Mountain tries to convey the passion for motion in nature. The book series is downloaded over 40 000 times per year. A number of younger readers liked it so much that they decided to study physics at university.