Humane Physics
I have already had good reviews both here and on Amazon, but none, until now, from an actual science teacher who commented on the quality of the book from the teacher’s perspective. That is why this review is so important to me.
John Hlynialuk, a retired science teacher, is not a Goodreads member, but he has read my book: "Humane Physics" and asked me to post his review anywhere I wished, so here it comes
"Francis Mont has done an impressive amount of research for this book ferreting out the interesting stories associated with the names in physics we all recognize: Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Faraday are all there. Not only does he cover the physics discoveries of these individuals, but he also relates some of the interesting anecdotes of their personal lives or of the times in which they worked.
In my teaching of physics concepts, I have always found that an interesting anecdote always made the physics more palatable. And it is always important to present physics as a human endeavour rather than as an activity disconnected from the real world. No one drops a glass and thinks as it falls, “hmmm, the force of gravity is accelerating this mass at 9.8 m/s/s and it will hit the floor at about 10 m/s and probably shatter because the cohesive forces of the glass molecules will not be able to withstand the...etc. etc.” . But everyone appreciates how a falling object and the Earth’s Moon are connected by the same force of gravity.
What the majority of physics students who do not go on to work in the field will remember is not the Laws of Physics they may have memorized, but hopefully the concepts embodied by those laws in general and the efforts of physicists to understand the natural world as they struggled to sort out phenomena like force, light, gravity, electricity and magnetism. Mont does an admirable job of relating those struggles and elucidating them in language that non-physicists can understand. The lessons taught here are how physics fits into our everyday lives.
Though the book is touted as “painless physics”, it is after all a book on PHYSICS (the very word sends shivers down the spines of many...). But Mont does not sacrifice giving a thorough explanation of the subject. The mathematical development of various laws is there complete with the equations and where the going is beyond the level of the students towards which the book is aimed, Mont provides full mathematical derivations in a special section called “The Next Level”. He also has a chapter called “Your Math Toolkit” for those wishing to brush up on their math skills and delve more deeply into the mathematical aspects of physical laws. Therefore the book is useful for physics students and a valuable reference to any physics teacher at the high school or college level.
I highly recommend it."
John Hlynialuk, a retired science teacher, is not a Goodreads member, but he has read my book: "Humane Physics" and asked me to post his review anywhere I wished, so here it comes
"Francis Mont has done an impressive amount of research for this book ferreting out the interesting stories associated with the names in physics we all recognize: Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Faraday are all there. Not only does he cover the physics discoveries of these individuals, but he also relates some of the interesting anecdotes of their personal lives or of the times in which they worked.
In my teaching of physics concepts, I have always found that an interesting anecdote always made the physics more palatable. And it is always important to present physics as a human endeavour rather than as an activity disconnected from the real world. No one drops a glass and thinks as it falls, “hmmm, the force of gravity is accelerating this mass at 9.8 m/s/s and it will hit the floor at about 10 m/s and probably shatter because the cohesive forces of the glass molecules will not be able to withstand the...etc. etc.” . But everyone appreciates how a falling object and the Earth’s Moon are connected by the same force of gravity.
What the majority of physics students who do not go on to work in the field will remember is not the Laws of Physics they may have memorized, but hopefully the concepts embodied by those laws in general and the efforts of physicists to understand the natural world as they struggled to sort out phenomena like force, light, gravity, electricity and magnetism. Mont does an admirable job of relating those struggles and elucidating them in language that non-physicists can understand. The lessons taught here are how physics fits into our everyday lives.
Though the book is touted as “painless physics”, it is after all a book on PHYSICS (the very word sends shivers down the spines of many...). But Mont does not sacrifice giving a thorough explanation of the subject. The mathematical development of various laws is there complete with the equations and where the going is beyond the level of the students towards which the book is aimed, Mont provides full mathematical derivations in a special section called “The Next Level”. He also has a chapter called “Your Math Toolkit” for those wishing to brush up on their math skills and delve more deeply into the mathematical aspects of physical laws. Therefore the book is useful for physics students and a valuable reference to any physics teacher at the high school or college level.
I highly recommend it."
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