Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Book Review: The Manga Guide to Physics

The Manga Guide to Physicsby Hideo Nitta and Keita Takatsu. Published by No Starch Press, ISBN-10: 1593271964.

This book is an awfully fun, highly educational read. My last involvement with physics was 30 years ago in high school when I sat in the back row of Mr. Davis’s classroom with my best friend Ernie Fatta. I was more interested in trying to flirt with the pretty girl who sat near us, plus math wasn’t my strong suit, so I didn’t get much out of the course. Go figure.

This book uses a story line to expose readers to fundamental physics concepts like Newton’s Laws of Motion, vectors of force, and kinetic energy. A patient physics geek walks the main character through the concepts using practical demonstrations with tennis balls, bodies, etc.

All the concepts are laid out in very clear fashion, and the examples are really spot on and understandable. There’s math involved, but it’s kept at an understandable level and is presented in very short, progressive steps.

This was a really enjoyable read – and it was even educational. I loved the format and I really appreciated the effort and thought that went into laying out the material in such a clear fashion.

There’s an entire series of these Manga Guides covering everything from molecular biology to databases. If the others are as good as this one then I’d be happy to read them too!

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