books

The Light and Matter Series

This series of six books is intended for a one-year introductory course of the type typically taken by biology majors. Algebra and trig are used, and there are optional calculus-based sections.

• 1. Newtonian Physics
• 2. Conservation Laws
• 3. Vibrations and Waves
• 4. Electricity and Magnetism
• 5. Optics
• 6. The Modern Revolution in Physics

Other Books

• Simple Nature - a calculus-based book for students majoring in engineering and the physics sciences
• Conceptual Physics - a nonmathematical book for the general reader
• Calculus
• General Relativity

Extras

• instructor's materials
• answer checker
• Light and Matter is aligned with California state content standards for high school physics (pdf), and is one of 18 texts listed by the California Free Digital Textbook Initiative for use in public high schools.

Who's Using the Books

Within each section, schools are listed in reverse chronological order of adoption. Since the books are free, I don't necessarily find out when someone stops using the books, so as you go down each list, the chance that the school is no longer using them gets higher. If you happen to know that one of these listings is out of date, please let me know.

Adoptions of Light and Matter

Colleges and Universities

• Eastern Oregon University
• Langara College (Prof. Hughes' Physics 1118)
• College of the Desert (Prof. Doug MacIntire)
• UC Irvine (Dr. Yodh's Physics H90)
• Mt. Hood Community College (Dave Faust)
• University of Technology, Mauritius (Prof. Hans Seegobin)
• Bentley College (Prof. Reda)
• Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Prof. Claster)
• De Montfort University (Dr. Abdul Almiladi)
• Martin Luther College (Prof. Martin Sponholz)
• Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Beth Geng
• American Academy of Art (David Cushman's SCI101)
• Longwood University (Prof. Moore)
• Heilbronn University (Dr. Ritter)
• University of Hartford
• Shorter College (Prof. Chuck Pearson)
• SUNY Potsdam (Prof. Lawrence Brehm, used along with ActivPhysics)
• Columbia State Community College, Tennessee
• Evergreen State College (Prof. Allen Olson)
• Malespina University-College (Prof. Tom Leavitt)
• Henry Ford Community College (Prof. Michael LoPresto's short course on waves)
• Colorado State University (Prof. Martin Gelfand)
• Valley City State University (Prof. Gilbert Kuipers)
• Cuyahoga Community College (in optical technology)
• the University of Delhi (Prof. Pankaj Narang)

High Schools

• Glenpool High School, Glenpool, OK (Gaylen Urie)
• Academy of Physics and Technology, San Rafael High School (Steve Temple)
• Mesilla Valley Christian Schools, Las Cruces, NM (Paul Vawter)
• Georges Valley High School (John Hodges)
• Boston Central Adult High School, Boston, MA (Jed Stamas)
• Liceo Scientifico I. Newton, Camposampiero, Padua, Italy (G.P. Chiaro)
• Minnesota Academy of Math and Science, Cotter Schools, Winona, MN (Mark Ordal)
• Piedmont Academy, Monticello, GA (Lynn Cashwell)
• Rockford Christian High School, Rockford, IL (Keith Jeske's conceptual physics)
• Central Virginia Governor's School for Science and Technology
• Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School (Woody Malot's honors/AP physics)
• St. Dominic Regional High School, Auburn, ME
• W.G. Enloe Magnet High School, Raleigh, NC (E. Woolard's IB/AP physics class)
• St. Mary's Academy High School, Englewood, CO
• Cannon School, Concord, NC (honors physics)
• Marymount School of New York
• Bais Chaya Mushka Girls' High School, Morristown, NJ
• Brenham Christian Academy
• the Athenian School (Mary Morey's Advanced Physics)
• Altamont School (Warren Kinney's AP-B)
• Henry Clay High School, Lexington, KY (Karen Gill's advanced physics class)
• Tates Creek High School, Lexington, KY (Scot Gill)
• Salem High School, Salem, MA
• Cascade Christian Schools, Puyallup, WA
• Gospel Outreach Christian School, Tacoma, WA

Adoptions of Simple Nature

• Queen's University Belfast (Prof. Fred Currell's E&M and thermodynamics)
• College of the Desert (Prof. Doug MacIntire)
• Mt. Hood Community College (Prof. Dave Faust)
• Martin Luther College (Prof. Martin Sponholz)

Adoptions of Conceptual Physics

Conceptual Physics has been adopted at:

• Southern Utah University (Prof. James Chisholm)
• Cumberland Christian Academy, Austell, Georgia (Lawrence Davis)
• West LA College (Prof. Sy Levine)
• Bryant University (Prof. Brian Blais)
• Lebanon College (Prof. Juan Pablo Fernández)
• North Georgia College and State University (David Moore's Physics 3000)

Adoptions of Discover Physics

Discover Physics has been adopted at:

• Ohlone College (Otis Walton's Physics 108)
• Harmony Academies
• St. Johnsbury Academy
• Montana Tech (a class for radiological technicians)
• Tarbut V' Torah High School in Irvine, California
• Amy Biehl High School, Albuquerque, NM (a combined anatomy and physics class)

LaTeX Source Code

The books were written using LaTeX, plus a bunch of custom scripts. If all you want to do is read the books, you don't need to bother with any of this; each book is available as a PDF file from its own web page. The LaTeX source code, illustrations, and scripts are all publicly available here. The total size of the download is about 160 Mb. As an alternative to downloading the whole thing, you can look through the source code in a web browser here. The scripts are written to run on Unix; they might work on MacOS X, but I haven't tried. Licensing information is given on the copyright page of the PDF version of each book, and also in the photo credits section in the back.

To download the source code, you need to install free software called Git, e.g., by doing sudo apt-get install git-core on Ubuntu Linux. Then do this from a terminal window:

        git clone git://lightandmatter.com/physics
      

This will create a subdirectory physics inside your current working directory, and then download everything into that subdirectory. The README file has instructions for compiling the book in LaTeX.