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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: MP-Ryan on July 04, 2012, 12:11:52 pm

Title: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: MP-Ryan on July 04, 2012, 12:11:52 pm
http://abstrusegoose.com/474

The concept illustrated in this comic applies to SO many other kinds of instruction manuals.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: Thaeris on July 04, 2012, 12:17:48 pm
It's funny because it's true...

...Which is ironically quite bemusing.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: z64555 on July 04, 2012, 06:29:29 pm
Lol, and...

Don't even get me started on that stuff.  :mad:
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: BlueFlames on July 04, 2012, 07:36:20 pm
Same principle applies to the authors of Physics texts, above the introductory level.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: z64555 on July 04, 2012, 07:54:00 pm
Same principle applies to the authors of Physics texts, above the introductory level.

Hey, I liked Sear's and Zemansky's University Physics book (published by Pearson-Addison Wesley). Granted it weighed enough to maim a small cat, it lasted throughout all of my physics courses.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: Thaeris on July 04, 2012, 08:36:05 pm
Same principle applies to the authors of Physics texts, above the introductory level.

Hey, I liked Sear's and Zemansky's University Physics book (published by Pearson-Addison Wesley). Granted it weighed enough to maim a small cat, it lasted throughout all of my physics courses.

I love that book, and it's one you should never sell. It's in a stack behind me at this very moment.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: z64555 on July 04, 2012, 09:02:56 pm
Hey, I liked Sear's and Zemansky's University Physics book (published by Pearson-Addison Wesley). Granted it weighed enough to maim a small cat, it lasted throughout all of my physics courses.

I love that book, and it's one you should never sell. It's in a stack behind me at this very moment.

Ditto.  :P
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: Mongoose on July 04, 2012, 10:56:59 pm
I kept all my physics books, but yes, this issue was endemic to most of them.  It's one of the (several) reasons I had such a rough time with the major and grew to dislike it: the examples in the actual text would usually be easy enough to follow, but the problem sets were about three degrees of difficulty above those, and often required logical leaps that I could never seem to make.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: watsisname on July 05, 2012, 12:47:42 am
A few months ago my elderly neighbor passed away.  Since he didn't have any family or kids to get the house or his belongings, it all went into bags to end up in landfill.  Very sad.  I went through and found a whopping stack of his old physics books.  From the 1930s to 1960s!  All the same stuff you learn in modern physics classes today though -- mechanics, thermo, optics, quantum, relativity, methods of mathematical analysis, you name it.  Very cool to read through, and actually been a nice resource for me on a few occasions. :)  I'm very glad I was able to save them from being trashed.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: Thaeris on July 05, 2012, 01:17:15 am
That's odd that everything would just be trashed. You'd think someone could have had a sale arranged to help pay for final expenses.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: Mongoose on July 05, 2012, 01:23:32 am
I have a physics text lying around from the 50s or 60s, and another from all the way back in the 20s.  I really need to page through those a bit more thoroughly some day.
Title: Re: Arithmetic for Beginners
Post by: BlueFlames on July 05, 2012, 02:33:33 am
Quote
...and another from all the way back in the 20s.

That could be a fascinating read, depending on how advanced it's meant to be.  We had only figured out that atoms had a nucleus in 1909, and electromagnetic theory was still cutting edge science!