Motion Mountain Physics Textbook

This is a mountain of a textbook with over 2,500 pages across six different volumes. It was written for students, teachers and “anybody curious about nature.”

The author had the goal of creating a textbook that fascinates and excites rather than the somewhat standard dry and boring tomes he experienced as a student. It is one of those books that is as beautiful as it is informative. It contains anecdotes, riddles, unique tables, astonishing photographs and beautiful films. It has taken 20 years and 27 editions to produce the version now being offered in several forms both online and off. Dr. Christoph Schiller earned his Ph.D. in physics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in the department of Ilya Prigogine. He originally began working on the Motion Mountain Physics Textbook in 1990.

It has been translated into dozens of languages and utilized in classrooms around the globe. According to a number of messages left for Dr. Schiller, a number of high school students, after delving into the series, have been inspired to major in physics in college.

Students might also be interested in submitting entries to the author’s “Prize Challenges.” Winning entries will be added to the Motion Mountain Physics Textbook. The prizes appear to vary from 10 Euros up to a printed edition of the textbook to 1,000 Euros.

Volume I: Fall, Flow and Heat

(564 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. Why should we care about motion?
  2. From motion measurement to continuity
  3. How to describe motion – kinematics
  4. From objects and images to conservation
  5. From the rotation of the Earth to the relativity of motion
  6. Classical mechanics, force and the predictability of motion
  7. Measuring change with action
  8. Motion and symmetry
  9. Simple motions of extended bodies – oscillations and waves
  10. Do extended bodies exist? – Limits of continuity
  11. Fluids and their motion
  12. From heat to time-invariance
  13. Self-Organization and chaos – the simplicity of complexity
  14. From the limitations of physics to the limits of motion

This volume also contains a list of notations and conventions along with information on unites, measurements and constants. There is also a section entitled Challenge Hints and Solutions (it appears to contain most, but not all of the questions).

Volume II: Relativity

(366 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. Maximum speed, observers at rest and motion of light
  2. Relativistic mechanics
  3. Special relativity in four sentences
  4. Simple general relativity: gravitations, maximum speed and maximum force
  5. How maximum speed changes space, time and gravity
  6. Open orbits, bent light and wobbling vacuum
  7. From curvature to motion
  8. Why can we see the stars? – Motion in the universe
  9. Black holes – falling forever
  10. Does space differ from time?
  11. General relativity in a nutshell – a summary for the layman
  12. Units, measurements and constants

Volume III: Light, Charges and Brains

(426 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. Liquid electricity, invisible fields and maximum speed
  2. The description of electromagnetic field evolution
  3. What is light?
    • Images and the eye – optics
    • Light sources
    • Images – transporting light
    • The eye and the brain?: biological image acquisition and processing
    • Displaying images
  4. Electromagnetic effects
  5. Summary and limits of classical electrodynamics
  6. The story of the brain
  7. Thought and language
  8. Concepts, lies and patterns of nature
    • Observations and their collection
    • The quest for precision and its implications
  9. Classical Physics in a nutshell

Volume IV: The Quantum of Change

(282 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. Minimum action – quantum theory for poets
  2. Light – the strange consequences of the quantum of action
  3. Motion of matter – beyond classical physics
  4. The quantum description of matter and its motion
  5. Permutation of particles – are particles like gloves?
  6. Rotations and statistics – visualizing spin
  7. Superpositions and probabilities – quantum theory without idealology
  8. Colours and other interactions between light and matter
  9. Quantum physics in a nutshell

Volume V: Motion Inside Matter – Pleasure, Technology and Stars

(440 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. Motion for enjoying life
    • From quantum physics to biological machins and miniaturization
    • The physics of pleasure
  2. Changing the world with quantum effects
    • Chemistry – from atoms to DNA
    • Materials science
    • Quantum technology
  3. Quantum electrodynamics – the origin of virtual reality
  4. Quantum mechanics with gravitation – first steps
  5. The structure of the nucleus – the densest clouds
  6. The sun, the stars and the birth of matter
  7. The strong interaction – inside nuclei and nucleons
  8. The weak nuclear interaction and the handedness of nature
  9. The standard model of particle physics – as seen on television
  10. Dreams of unification
  11. Bateria, flies and knots
  12. Quantum physics in a nutshell – again

Volume V also contains a section on Spaces, Algebras and Shapes. It covers vector spaces, lie algebras, topology, types and classifications of groups and mathematical curiousities and fun challenges.

Volume VI: The Strand Model – A Speculation on Unification

(448 pages)

Table of Contents

  1. From millennium physics to unification
  2. Physics in limit statements
    • Simplifying physics as much as possible
    • Planck limits for all physical observables
    • Cosmological limits for all physical observables
    • Summary on limits in nature
  3. General relativity versus quantum theory
  4. Does matter differ from vacuum?
  5. What is the difference between the universe and nothing?
  6. The shape of points – extension in nature
    • The size and shape of elementary particles
    • The shape of points in vacuum
    • The large, the small and their connection
    • Does nature have parts?
    • The entropy of black holes
    • Exchanging space points or particles at Planck scales
    • The meaning of spin
    • Curiosities and fun challenges about extension
    • Checks of extension
  7. The basis of the strand model
  8. Quantum theory of matter deduced from strands
  9. Gauge interactions deduced from strands
    • Electrodynamics and the first Reidemeister move
    • The weak nuclear interaction and the second Reidemeister move
    • The strong nuclear interaction and the third Reidemesiter move
    • Summary on millenium issues about gauge interaction
  10. General relativity deduced from strands
    • Cosmology
  11. The particle spectrum deduced from strands
    • Particles made from one strand
    • Particles made from two strands
    • Particles made from three strands
    • Tangles of four or more strands
    • Fun challenges and curiosities about particle tangles
  12. Summary on millennium issues about particles and related predictions
  13. Particle properties deduced from strands
    • The masses of the elementary particles
    • Mixing angles
    • Coupling constants and unification
    • Final summary about the millennium issues
    • Experimental predictions of the strand model
    • The top of Motion Mountain
    • Our path to the top
    • New sights
    • A return path: je rêve, donc je suis
    • What is the origin of colors?
    • Summary: what is motion?
   

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Motion Mountain Physics Textbook

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