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A bit more on the Maxwell book: it's a real textbook rather than "pop physics" in the usual sense, but written for people with only a high-school level of math
by abecedarius 8y ago
A bit more on the Maxwell book: it's a real textbook rather than "pop physics" in the usual sense, but written for people with only a high-school level of math (algebra and geometry). Wonderful explanations -- for one, iirc, the derivation of Kepler's conic-section law which Feynman later rediscovered and presented in "The Motion of Planets Around the Sun" -- although the prose style is rather stuffy and Victorian, and Feynman has him beat there.
- earthicus 8y agoAre you sure we're thinking of the same book? The one i'm referring to [1] uses basic algebra (fractions, exponents, variables), only a couple of times in the entire exposition if i remember correctly. Its precisely what I would think of as good, non-fake popular physics. Edit: On second thought, I suppose this really isn't "popular physics in the usual sense" as you described it, so we probably are referring to the same text! https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.151311/page/n7 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.151311/page/n7
- abecedarius 8y agoYes, that's the one.