The Cartoon Guide to Physics
Written by: Larry Gonick
Editorial Reviews:
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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: A quick introduction or overview
Comment: I really enjoy this brief introduction to most of the important fundamentals of Physics. If you have any physics background (I have an undergraduate degree in physics) you won't find much anything really outstanding or significant but you will probably enjoy reading this highly useful and entertaining presentation. The light-hearted perspective may provide physics-literate readers several new ideas on how to explain fundamental physics to "lay-persons".
For instance, I've provided this text and a couple of others to high schoolers thinking of enrolling in AP Physics. This could provide several students or adults a quick, unthreatening introduction and overview to the major precepts of Physics.
So that's where I recommend this book be used ... as a quick, non-threatening overview for adults or young people who want the quick 50,000-foot view of college or AP Physics presented in an understandable and humorous fashion that they can get through in one or two sittings.
And finally, for the physics-literate it provides several examples of how you might approach explaining some of the tenets of physics to other people who, ... let's say were once or still are frightened away from this subject because of a previous presentation they found much too daunting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great example of the possibilities for sequential art
Comment: Gornick has done a pretty good job of using sequential art (i.e., comics) to explain difficult abstractions. I purchased this text to help my research about comics and teaching. I was quite satisfied.
Gornick mainly uses the illustrations for 2 purposes: to 'show' various experiments and metaphors, or to toss in a gag every couple pages. It's not a very visionary use of sequential art, but basically it works. The text explanations and visual explanations integrate well, and some of the gags are actually funny.
So, for what it's trying to do, the text is successful, I'd say. I only give it 4 stars out of 5 b/c I think there is so much MORE that comics can do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book for anyone struggling with general physics concepts
Comment: This book was one of our text books in my introductory physics course in college. If you are struggling with general physics, this book is for you. It breaks everything down into easy to understand explanations and the illustrations are very helpful in visualizing the concepts presented. I've been referring back to it for years now. It has also helped me in studying for the MCAT, to review physics concepts that I had forgotten.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitely not a text-book. Definitely funny!
Comment: Some books make you laugh out loud, and this is one of them.
If you are 'into' physics then you'll probably find it funnier, but I've seen it bring a smile to the face of everyone who flips through it.
I teach an aerodynamics class, and particularly found the book useful in jogging my students' memories regarding their physics fundamentals. However, I'd be really hard pressed to call this text anything more than a fun refresher text. So don't expect exam grade learning from this one.
If it were only as humourous as the Cartoon History series. But then, is it possible to make equations as funny as human behaviour?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Comment: I was a lousy science major in high school. Looking back, I have no idea why I chose the subject I did anyway. The point is, I never understood half the stuff we were going through. Now, 10 years later, I've forgotten the few things I did understand.
Thanks to the magic of Larry Gonick I get now get it! At first glance it still looks hard. They really dive right in with formulas and stuff, but after a little while it feels natural. I just wish my teacher back then had put this book in my hands. Or maybe I just gave Gonick the chance I never gave my teacher. Either way, this was an enjoyable read!
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780062731005
ISBN: 0062731009
Label: Collins
Manufacturer: Collins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 1992-02-01
Publisher: Collins
Release Date: 1991-12-18
Studio: Collins
 | Format: Paperback List Price: $17.95 Our Price: $12.21 Your Save: $ 5.74 ( 32% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Average Customer Rating:  |
Editorial Reviews:
If you think a negative charge is something that shows up on your credit card bill -- if you imagine that Ohm's Law dictates how long to meditate -- if you believe that Newtonian mechanics will fix your car -- you need The Cartoon Guide to Physics to set you straight.
You don't have to be a scientist to grasp these and many other complex ideas, because The Cartoon Guide to Physics explains them all: velocity, acceleration, explosions, electricity and magnetism, circuits -- even a taste of relativity theory -- and much more, in simple, clear, and, yes, funny illustrations. Physics will never be the same!
If you like "The Cartoon Guide to Physics, you might also like ...
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: A quick introduction or overview
Comment: I really enjoy this brief introduction to most of the important fundamentals of Physics. If you have any physics background (I have an undergraduate degree in physics) you won't find much anything really outstanding or significant but you will probably enjoy reading this highly useful and entertaining presentation. The light-hearted perspective may provide physics-literate readers several new ideas on how to explain fundamental physics to "lay-persons".
For instance, I've provided this text and a couple of others to high schoolers thinking of enrolling in AP Physics. This could provide several students or adults a quick, unthreatening introduction and overview to the major precepts of Physics.
So that's where I recommend this book be used ... as a quick, non-threatening overview for adults or young people who want the quick 50,000-foot view of college or AP Physics presented in an understandable and humorous fashion that they can get through in one or two sittings.
And finally, for the physics-literate it provides several examples of how you might approach explaining some of the tenets of physics to other people who, ... let's say were once or still are frightened away from this subject because of a previous presentation they found much too daunting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great example of the possibilities for sequential art
Comment: Gornick has done a pretty good job of using sequential art (i.e., comics) to explain difficult abstractions. I purchased this text to help my research about comics and teaching. I was quite satisfied.
Gornick mainly uses the illustrations for 2 purposes: to 'show' various experiments and metaphors, or to toss in a gag every couple pages. It's not a very visionary use of sequential art, but basically it works. The text explanations and visual explanations integrate well, and some of the gags are actually funny.
So, for what it's trying to do, the text is successful, I'd say. I only give it 4 stars out of 5 b/c I think there is so much MORE that comics can do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book for anyone struggling with general physics concepts
Comment: This book was one of our text books in my introductory physics course in college. If you are struggling with general physics, this book is for you. It breaks everything down into easy to understand explanations and the illustrations are very helpful in visualizing the concepts presented. I've been referring back to it for years now. It has also helped me in studying for the MCAT, to review physics concepts that I had forgotten.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitely not a text-book. Definitely funny!
Comment: Some books make you laugh out loud, and this is one of them.
If you are 'into' physics then you'll probably find it funnier, but I've seen it bring a smile to the face of everyone who flips through it.
I teach an aerodynamics class, and particularly found the book useful in jogging my students' memories regarding their physics fundamentals. However, I'd be really hard pressed to call this text anything more than a fun refresher text. So don't expect exam grade learning from this one.
If it were only as humourous as the Cartoon History series. But then, is it possible to make equations as funny as human behaviour?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Comment: I was a lousy science major in high school. Looking back, I have no idea why I chose the subject I did anyway. The point is, I never understood half the stuff we were going through. Now, 10 years later, I've forgotten the few things I did understand.
Thanks to the magic of Larry Gonick I get now get it! At first glance it still looks hard. They really dive right in with formulas and stuff, but after a little while it feels natural. I just wish my teacher back then had put this book in my hands. Or maybe I just gave Gonick the chance I never gave my teacher. Either way, this was an enjoyable read!
Technical Details
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780062731005
ISBN: 0062731009
Label: Collins
Manufacturer: Collins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 1992-02-01
Publisher: Collins
Release Date: 1991-12-18
Studio: Collins
