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Cambridge University Press make their books free until May

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51–57 of 57 posts

Re: Cambridge University Press make their books free until May

#51
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Other books like Introduction to Space Dynamics are very hand-wavey... Coordinate systems should not dictate the physics; it should be the other way around. It seems like you've not tried reading actual physics books written by real physicists and have only purveyed books known to a handful of engineering specialists, and have come to the conclusion that this is the best book for learning mechanics. I also fail to…

> It seems like you've not tried reading actual physics books written by real physicists I find it pretty baffling you think this is the inescapable conclusion. Of course I've taken physics courses, that's where the frustration comes from. Many physics and astronomy books are riddled with errors and that's almost entirely down to how frequently they skip steps. Not only are 90% of underclassman physics texts written…

> The book was Tipler / Llewellyn by the way.

Ah, you're talking about lower-level-answers-at-the-back undergraduate books in physics. Yes, most of them are shit, and it would be a futile task to learn any real physics from them. Who was even talking about such books? Lol.

> I would consider most other physics textbooks to be the haphazard ones, and when you compare the rate of errors in the text I have a strong suspicion those other books have much higher rates on average

From your comments it's pretty apparent that you've not even looked into any graduate-level or even upper-level undergrad physics books and the only physics books you've read are overpriced freshmen/sophomore physics textbooks. In any case, do you really think a book (series) like Landau and Lifshitz or The Feynman Lectures (which is actually freshman physics) has more errors and typos compared to some obscure text in engineering with contrived methods and reinvented wheels? Lol.

Anyway, there's no point in taking this argument further. It's unlikely that either of us would change our viewpoints ;-)

Re: Cambridge University Press make their books free until May

#52
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like you've not tried reading actual physics books written by real physicists I find it pretty baffling you think this is the inescapable conclusion. Of course I've taken physics courses, that's where the frustration comes from. Many physics and astronomy books are riddled with errors and that's almost entirely down to how frequently they skip steps. Not only are 90% of underclassman physics texts written…

> The book was Tipler / Llewellyn by the way. Ah, you're talking about lower-level-answers-at-the-back undergraduate books in physics. Yes, most of them are shit, and it would be a futile task to learn any real physics from them. Who was even talking about such books? Lol. > I would consider most other physics textbooks to be the haphazard ones, and when you compare the rate of errors in the text I have a strong susp…

> In any case, do you really think a book (series) like Landau and Lifshitz or The Feynman Lectures (which is actually freshman physics)

If you think that's the bible, it's on you to recommend it. What isn't okay is saying that books written by "real physicists" are the correct ones, when Tipler and Llewellyn (and the other authors I didn't mention) are that. It's dipping into the No True Scotsman territory. Graduate studies is not the world in general; of course people who are studying a topic in their graduate degree program are going to be using textbooks of a higher calibre, but also at the cost of being inaccessible. HN isn't that audience, and neither are 99% of audiences.

Re: Cambridge University Press make their books free until May

#57
post #23

My company, VitalSource, which bought my startup Verba did this good thing too! We have over a 100k ebooks from top higher ed publishers (including CUP) available for free (download to your phone or computer, or use online)! You need an institutional email address from a 2- or 4-year non-profit semester based institution. Only America right now but we’re working on international! Check it out at https://get.vitalsour…

> ...did this good thing too!

> email address from a 2- or 4-year non-profit semester based institution > Only in America > seven titles per user

Good for you, but that's significantly more asterixes than Cambridge's offer. I'm not sure I know anybody who's eligible.

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