Reviews for Electricity and Magnetism, Unit Transparency Book

The average rating for Electricity and Magnetism, Unit Transparency Book based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-08-13 00:00:00 Adam Hawkes "Will the world end in the daytime? I really don't know" This book is gorgeous. The typeset and page design is very late 19th century, probably an exact copy of the original English translation. The illustrations and layout of the text around them is a treat to look at, and the font is so clean and simple; it's the kind of font I always wanted for my zine, maybe with a little less space between the letters, but this would have been my choice if I had it. I have no idea what font it is, I can't tell things like that by just looking at it. Amateur appreciation of design aside then there is what these illustrations and nicely placed letters actually mean. In the best (worst?) tradition of 19th century pedantic fiction this book is really a scientific treatises in the guise of a novel. There is little story here. The story that is supposedly in this book is that a comet is about the smack into the Earth. 25th century man freaks out that they are all going to die, so what do they do? Well in Paris they all gather into a great hall to listen to a bunch of scientists expound on what they think the end of the world will be (will it be the comet? will it be a great deluge? will it be fire from the sky? a leveling of the land? heat? cold?). So the first half of this book is a bunch of different scientists each giving their view on how the world will end (insert Smiths line here). Lots of scientific facts are given, conclusions drawn, and one feels like he is reading Plato, sort of like the Symposium, as opposed to one of Plato's more 'teaching' dialogs. So the first half of the book is this. All these different views on how the world will end, and then for a handful of pages the reader gets a break to see what happens about the comet, and (spoiler... although the spoiler is on the back cover too), the world doesn't end from the comet. Yay!. Oh. There is still half the book left. Well in the Symposium this is where Socrates gets up to say that the 'beast with two backs' isn't the greatest form of love, but man-boy love is--and that it's beyond refute. The man-boy love in this story is a long drawn out description of life after the comet misses. Man develops, the world eventually starts to die, and so much science is given. The number of times velocity is described and I'm pretty sure the same numbers are given over and over again, and he draws some conjectures about infinite return and the scope is dragged out to millions and billions of years and more science is given, and then you (I) realize that I (you) have no idea if any of this science is even right, and you (I) wonder about black holes, and think, "but the earth was never a sun, that is just silly", and then think "and the sun will not one day become a planet, that's even sillier, especially when you have destroyed the idea of their being a near by sun for it to have, and I don't know much about astronomy, but what about the big bang, and duck-billed platypuses, and other things that happen that I can't explain, and is your science right? And relativity and other things I don't know about but which came after you, and really your whole idea of time is just kind of wacky from any kind of philosophical view, I mean, what about mother fucking Empedocles!!" and you're (I) staring at the book while writing a review and wanting answers from a book, and I (you) have no idea why you even care so much, but instead you (actually I here) keep writing and writing this review, because it won't fucking stop, there is no end, just like this authors whole universe, that will never end, everything will die and come back in a gazillion years, but that's like nothing when facing the vast infinity of time and space, so what the fuck does it even matter...... but did I mention the layout is really great? Post Script: After thinking it over I'm only giving you two stars. You're layout was nice, and you were inoffensive, but your three star rating was kind of a slap in the face to all my other three star books. Sorry.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-10-14 00:00:00 Ron Ready I really don't know what to say... Let us sleep and perchance dream... and maybe a review will come. First Part of the Novel After sleeping on it I must say that this book will be an hard book to review. It tries to be several things at the same time. It's a scientific novel veiled by SF/Pseudohistory/philosophy/theological elements. It tries so hard to teach us that fails because of it... At times I thought I was in: Now the plot... Well again it's hard... The first half of the book is a serie of conferences between the great geniuses of earth as they try to discern the impact of a comet on earth. Several people have opinions and you listened to them all. And it's boring as hell. Why? Because it's full of information useless and it doesnt go anywhere. The first chapter of this novel introduce us to the grim reality that is going to befall on earth. The comet, thirty times bigger than earth will collide with Earth and everyone will die. The comet itself is made of Carbonic-oxide. I am no astrophysics or astronomer but I do know if that collided on earth it didn't matter what it was made off. Earth would be destroyed. But after several attempts to discern that we will die of asphyxiation or heat or cold or whatever it happens... page upon page of this: "The hydrogen and the oxygen, combining with the carbon of the comet, will take fire. The temperature of the air will be raised several hundred degrees; woods, habitations, edifices, cities, villages, will all be rapidly consumed ; the sea, the lakes and the rivers will begin to boil ; men and animals, enveloped in the hot breath of the comet, will die asphyxiated before burned..." "If it collided with Jupiter it would raise the temperature of that globe to such a point as to restore to it its lost light, and to make it for a time a sun again, so that the earth would be lighted by two suns, Jupiter becoming a sort of minor night-sun, far brighter than the moon, and shining by its own light of a ruby-red or garnet color, revolving about the earth in twelve years. A nocturnal sun!" So they thought that Jupiter was a sun... interesting. And what was said was the absolute true: "Unfortunately, I must admit that the calculations of the astronomers are in this case, as usual, entirely correct." (The writer was an Astronomer) Blah blah... "We believe,that we may fearlessly accept the above estimate of 24cubic klm,as a basis of calculation;and as this figure is contained 4,166,666 times in 100,000,000,which represents the volume of the continents, we are authorized to infer that under the sole action of forces now in operation, provided no other movements of the soil occur,the dry land will totally disappear within a period of 4 milion years." The all book is like this... tedious information... It's a new genre... it's call scientific fiction. It's harder than Hard SF... sorry the pun but that's it... It's tedious as hell.. page upon page of endless information. After 110 pages of scientific debate of what would happen if a comet hit the earth we turn into theological debates and now the narrator tells us in a 20 page thesis "Everytime the church said that the end was near... it wasn't" .... To say this book is apocalpytic fiction is to say I am Cristiano Ronaldo.. We are both portuguese so... --- after reading 150 pages I say: STRIKE US OH MIGHTY COMET AND END MY PAIN!!! "Then later statistics of the comet's victims were obtained, it was found that the number of the dead was one-fortieth of the population of Europe." - If a comet of that size had it earth, earth would be destroyed. Complete obliterated. Imagine something larger than the moon impacting on Earth. Goodnight everyone... But on this case.... "Scarcely a half hour had passed before people began to issue from their cellars, feeling again the joy of living, and recovering gradually from their apathy. Even before one had really begun to take any account of the fires which were still raging, notwithstanding the deluge or rain, the scream of the newsboy was heard in the hardly awakened streets." This novel is full of entries like this... Medical statistics, subtracting from the general total the normal mean, based upon a death-rate of twenty for every one thousand inhabitants, that is, 492 per day, or 15,252 for the month, which represents the number of those who would have died independently of the comet, ascribed to the latter the difference between these two numbers, namely, 222,633..." But not all things are bad. At times it has some good prose or images... "This apparent decrease in brilliancy was chiefly due to contrast, for when the eye, less dazzled, had become accustomed to this new light, it seemed almost as intense as the former, but of a sickly, lurid, sepulchral hue. Never before had the earth been bathed in such a light, which at first seemed to be colorless, emitting lightning flashes from its pale and wan depths" Second Part of the Novel After the first part of the novel was concluded we came to the pseudohistorical novel of Earth. From the time of the comet forward until the end of earth, galaxy and the universe... It begins with a feminism propaganda (it was a guy who wrote the book... even with a name like Camille :) ) Now this book has turn into a feminism propaganda... "Under the inspiration of a woman of spirit, a league was formed of the mothers of Europe, for the purpose of educating their children, especially their daughters, to a horror of the barbarities of war. So the women deprive man of sex. "For about five years there was scarcely a single marriage or union. Every citizen was a soldier, in France, in Germany,in Italy, in Spain, in every nation of Europe. The women held their ground ; they felt that truth was their side, but their firmness would deliver humanity from the slavery which oppressed it, and that they could not fail of victory." Of course man stop ... war! And then the writer says that the future is Socialism "It was this state of affairs which led to the great social revolution of the international socialists, of which mention was made at the beginning of this book, and to others which followed it." "All philosophy, all religion, was founded upon the progress of astronomy." "Humanity had tended towards unity, one race, one language, one general government, one religion. There were no more state religions ; only the voice of an enlightened conscience, and in this unity former anthropological differences had disappeared." So this is his perfect view of the world? I think future looks boring as hell... The evolution of mankind continues with the raise of a seven sense (electric) and eight sense (Psychic). The last forty pages is a philosophical debate about the meaning of life and the ending of earth.... Oh.. and she destroy my beautiful city of lisbon engulfed by the Sea. "The earth,an extinct sun, has cooled more rapidly than the sun.Jupiter,so immense, is still in its youth.The moon, smaller than Mars,has reached the more advanced stages of astral life,perhaps even has reached its end. Mars, smaller than the earth, is more advanced than the earth and less so than the moon. Our planet, in its turn,must die before Jupiter,and this,also,must take place before the sun becomes extinct." The last chapter (about 10 pages) is resumed by All is Dust. Everything is energy and so nothing really perish. Not a person, planet or a sun. Everything is transformed. I guess Flammarions interest on life after death was a dominant theme. "And all these things possessed nothing of the earth, whose very memory had passed away like a shadow. And these universes passed away in their turn. But infinite space remained, peopled with worlds, and stars, and souls, and suns ; and time went on forever. For there can be neither end nor beginning." Final Thoughts This book is not for everyone. Heck it wasn't for me but I had to finish what I started. This book is an ode. Mainly an ode to science but also for Woman, Socialism and Evolution. In the end is an Ode to Mankind and reading the last couple of pages is an Ode to Life. "It is sweet to live. Love atones for every loss ; in its joys all else is forgotten. Ineffable music of the heart, thy divine melody fill the soul with an ecstasy of infinite happiness ! What illustrious historians have celebrated the heroes of the world's progress, the glories of war, the conquests of mind and of spirit ! Yet after so many centuries of labor and struggle, there remained only two palpitating hearts, the kisses of two lovers. All had perished except love ; and love, the supreme sentiment, endured, shining like an inextinguishable beacon over the immense ocean of the vanished ages."