Universtiy Physics Volume III (OpenStax) – Partial
Universtiy Physics Volume III (OpenStax) – Partial
OER Reviewed: University Physics Volume 3 (OpenStax)
Reviewer: Jennifer Kirkey, Instructor of Physics and Astronomy, Articulation Chair of Physics and Astronomy, Douglas College
The reviewer will be using it in January 2021. The Department reviewed this set of books before changing from Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker to these books starting September 2020.
Rating
Each criterion asks the reviewer to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = very poor and 5 = excellent).
Comprehensiveness – Rating: 4
This OER is appropriate for the first part of PHYS III of the Engineering Common Core with is thermodynamics.
Openstax Volume 1
- Unit 1 Mechanics
- Unit 2 Waves and Acoustics
Openstax Volume 2
- Unit 1 Thermodynamics. (PHYS III in the ENGR Common Core)
- Unit 2 Electricity and Magnetism
Openstax Volume 3
- Unit 1 Optics
- Unit 2 Modern physics including relativity and quantum mechanics
It is a good book. Not a great book but as good book. Others will wax poetically about the standard book by Knight or the new one by Mazur, but this book is just fine.
It integrates calculus throughout. That pun was deliberate. In fact, that is one of the few criticisms. It is based more on the US curricula and assumes that the student has already done differential and integral calculus, though in BC calculus is often being taken at the same time. For example they do separation of variables to solve questions occasionally. They also use integrals to find time, i.e., t = integral of dx/v. Lastly, they talk about “exact differentials” in the context of conservative forces.
In my experience about half of the students in the Douglas College equivalent of PHYS I II II (PHYS1110, 1210 and 1170) are either taking integral calculus or have taken it. Overall, the calculus level to be quite a bit higher than Halliday Resnick and Walker, which is one of the common standard textbooks.
One of the weak points of the book is the focus on math over physics. It is difficult to tell students “ignore this example” frequently.
The index is comprehensive. The OpenStax books tend to be very well organized, and this one is true to form. An index at the back of the book. Each chapter at the end has a listing of “key terms” and a summary.
Content Accuracy – Rating: 4
Content, including diagrams and other supplementary material, is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.
This is a well written and well proofed text book. It is accurate, error-free and unbiased. Openstax makes good books.
Relevance/Longevity – Rating: 4.5
Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the OER obsolete within a short period of time. The OER is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.
The nice thing about first year physics is that it is applying laws that are more than 100 years ago. The start of PHYS III is thermodynamics. James Prescott Joule died in 1889 and the laws of t