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When a professional bowler gets a strike, he makes it look smooth and simple. Yet the process involved to cause all ten pins to simultaneously be propelled off the lane by a rolling ball is incredibly complicated. Mechanics is a branch of physics that is specifically concerned with the science behind motion, a discipline of study that can clearly explain from the moment the bowler picks up the ball to the final explosion of flying pins exactly what caused the event. Unfortunately, classroom instruction on the subject is often brief and haphazard, leaving the student with a vague understanding at best of how mechanics really works and not a clue as to how it is applicable in real life. The author seeks to rectify this in a detailed yet accessible text designed to demystify the topic and provide useful methods to help students comprehend and solve any test questions a teacher might spring on them.
Accordingly, Reynolds' method is not to replace classroom instruction but to supplement it with a book of over 300 word problems in twelve key topical areas that take the learner step-by-step from mind-boggling conundrum to understandable answer. This is achieved by having each problem immediately followed by a detailed solution often accompanied by one or more of the over 500 helpful diagrams in the book that illustrate the process taking place. By the end, students should be able to apply the teaching to almost any mechanics problem they might encounter. The author wastes very little space on introductory or biographical material, choosing instead to focus his efforts almost exclusively on the subject at hand. The result is a no-nonsense, practical, and extremely valuable resource that will help shed some light on what is often for struggling students a rather murky area of science.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review