Review: Sage beginner's Guide

 

Review: the Manga Guide to relativity

1St July 2011 | by Sol |

I have a confession to make. I have never liked physics a lot. As a sub degree at Stanford, I had to take a number of fundamental physics classes. Much of what we had to do was to use formulas to calculate the masses of tiny objects or to calculate small forces. The way it was taught in physics frustrated me because I developed no grounding of the topic. I could be off by many orders of magnitude and do not have a clue. Was the mass of that little thing 10 ^-20 grams or 10 ^-30 gram? Beats me. My Math education was on the other hand, much better, especially before my college years. I developed an intuitive ability to manipulate symbols and working with abstract concepts, which I never developed in physics.

When nice and remote control functionality IT no starch press offered me a review copy of The Manga Guide to relativity (Manga Guide series) I was reluctant to accept it. I will not review books not I even though I am certainly willing to report problems with the books I like in General.

I Manga Books. I have gone through in the Manga Guide to Calculus and the Manga Guide to statistics. I love the idea of transforming the difficult and detailed ideas for a story. I recently peer Keith Devlins new book, mathematics education to a new era: video games as a Medium for learning. In this book I learned the importance of creating an environment that engages students in learning. Video Games, if they are designed with the correct principles, do so in connection with computers. Manga Books, creating in my judgment, an excellent space for learning on the printed page.

So, what I think of this book? It is lighter on mathematical than I expect. It is heavily on introducing ideas. The story is entertaining. Michael Larsen has a great review on Amazon. Here is his introduction to the plot:

The most recent title, "The Manga Guide to relativity theory" (written by Hideo Nitta, Masafumi Yamamoto, Keita Takatsu) uses the classic history of the techniques common to most fans of the manga; student body President Ruka Minagi takes on a challenge from Rage Iyaga, sadistic and Moody school Rector (who also has a predilection towards androgyny, but hey, for someone with more than a passing security plans Manga titles, this pair of course) to write a report about relativity, thus sparing the rest of the class from having to do it over the summer break. If he succeeds, then the rest of the class spared the assignment. If he fails, he accepts the Iyaga's "personal assistant" for the next school year. All is not lost, although as a physics teacher Alisa Uraga agrees to teach Minagi about relativity, so he can complete the challenge. With, begins an adventure.

Most of the small number of reviewers on Amazon gave the book 5 stars. I love the book introduces a large number of concepts in a relaxed way. As another Amazon reviewer John Jacobson, noticed that makes paper relativity a number of important scientific ideas accessible to the non-mathematician. Jacobson's list includes:

the expression "relativity" idea of frames of reference, the difference between General and special relativity (it took Einstein 10 years to investigate and explain the general theory of relativity, after he had released his original paper on special relativity) space-time continuum speed limit universe (light speed) strange physical effects on the body when its speed approaching light (length contraction, time dilation hastighedstigende mass) derivation of the most famous equation of all time, the relationship between energy and mass ratio between gravity and acceleration Einstein's geometric view of space-time black hole gravity and the GPS system

While the ideas, there may be more available in comic form, they are still not simple ideas, and I certainly can't say that I now understand relativity. But now I am willing to consider that perhaps one day I physics, especially if I stick with the conceptual stuff for a good long time to get my bearings.

I very much look forward to the next Manga book.

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