Archaeology of a Bookstack: Some Major Introductory Physics Texts of the Last 150 Years

MAR 01, 1999

Changing styles in high school and college physics texts reveal an evolution in teaching methods, but we can also see signs of the same debates that continue today.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882613

Charles H. Holbrow

Beyond its teaching purpose, a textbook of introductory physics is also a historical document. It contains the physics and the pedagogy of its authors and their times, and reflects the era in which it was written. This article—paralleling an exhibit prepared by the American Physical Society’s forum on education for display at the APS centennial celebration in Atlanta this month—examines historical aspects of introductory physics texts. It begins with a 19th‐century text, Ganot’s Physics, and then works up to the present, examining various editions of popular introductory college‐level texts by Millikan, Franklin, Duff, Sears and Zemansky, and Halliday and Resnick (figure 1). It is interesting to see what has changed in the teaching of introductory physics over the last 150 years and what has remained the same.

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References

1. A. Ganot, Traité elémentaire de physique expérimental et appliquée et météorologie, L’auteur, Paris (1868). Ganot’s first edition was self‐published in about 1853.
2. D. M. Livingston, The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson, U. Chicago P., Chicago (1973), p. 14.
3. R. A. Millikan, The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan, Prentice‐Hall, New York (1950), p. 14.
4. J. Buchwald, From Maxwell to Microphysics, U. of Chicago P., Chicago (1985).
5. A. P. Gage, A Text‐Book on the Elements of Physics for High Schools and Academics, Ginn, Heath & Co., Boston (1884).
6. A. P. Gage, The Principles of Physics, Ginn, Boston (1895), p. iv.
7. D. L. Webster, Am. J. Phys. 6, 14 (1938).
8. E. H. Hall, Am. J. Phys. 6, 17 (1938).
M. Phillips, Am. J. Phys. 49 (6), 522 (1981). https://doi.org/AJPIAS
A. E. Moyer, Phys. Teach. February, 1976, p. 96.
9. R. A. Millikan, Mechanics, Molecular Physics and Heat, Scott, Foresman, Chicago (1902).
10. R. A. Millikan, H. G. Gale, Practical Physics, Ginn, Boston (1920).
11. W. S. Franklin, B. McNutt, A Calendar of Leading Experiments, Franklin, McNutt and Charles, South Bethlehem, Penn, (1907), p. v.
12. M. Phillips, in AAPT Pathways: Proc of the Fiftieth Anniversary Symp of the AAPT, M. Phillips, ed., American Association of Physics Teachers, Stony Brook, New York (1981), p. 49.
13. F. W. Sears, Am. J. Phys. 30, 401 (1962).https://doi.org/AJPIAS
14. D. Halliday, R. Resnick, Physics for Students of Science and Engineering, Wiley, New York (1960), p. x.

More about the authors

Charles H. Holbrow, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York.