Chapter 1 – Excerpt 5

Newton’s Third Law, Linear Momentum, and Unusual Feline Recreation.    

Chapter 1 – Excerpt 4

This excerpt, about Newton’s Second Law, finally contains the long-anticipated application – with possibly life-saving ramifications – that motivated the study of vectors at the beginning of the chapter. You’ll also learn which floor of a building is the most dangerous one to throw a cat out of, which I hope is a much less practical application.     

Chapter 1 – Excerpt 3

This excerpt is short and highly illustrated because it’s about mass and inertia, and cats, while not massive, are experts on inertia. It includes Newton’s First Law, a.k.a. the Law of Inertia.    

Chapter 1 – Excerpt 2

The next excerpt from Chapter 1 discusses velocity, acceleration and force. It contains algebra and calculus (which you may skip), a photo of one of my cats engaged in their other favorite activity (which you may dwell on to make up for skipping the math), and an exposé of the real source of Newton’s discovery of gravity under the apple tree.
As you can tell, cats are allowed on the table at our house. It would be too hard to explain to them that the tabletop is off-limits to cats when they see so many miniature statues of themselves there. Besides, it’s a fertile source of material for scientific investigation.    

Chapter 1 – Excerpt 1

This post is the beginning of the first “real” chapter, which is about linear motion. After a historical note about Newton and his cat, some vector concepts are presented, with a pedagogical use of color, to set the framework for the study of motion. (Despite their Zen-like propensity for stillness, cats are known to occasionally engage in motion.)    

Chapter 0

The introductory chapter is named after my own cats, because their names are mentioned in it. Future chapters will be named after famous scientists’ cats, some real and some imaginary (but all complex, of course).
A photo of Femto Chan is featured. (I wanted it to be a photo of Atto Chan, because her diminutive size makes Gravitation appear to be even larger, but she is the least cooperative, whereas Femto Chan is the most prone to restfulness. Zepto Chan is the most cooperative but, despite his name, he is also the largest. If you don’t understand what his name indicates about his size, you will after reading Chapter 0.)     

Preface

The preface is my favorite part of the book. Even people who hate physics and fear math like it. And cats adore it because it affirms their superiority. A delightfully relevant “Hobbes and Calvin” cartoon sets the tone.    

Introduction

I thought I would never, ever blog, but I am launching this blog today in observance of National Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day (I didn’t make this up – see http://tinyurl.com/ykpw5ml) .

It will contain excerpts from a book I am writing: Fizyx for Felines: A Physics Textbook for the Curious Cat.  All excerpts are copyright 2006-2010 by Skona Brittain. Note that to see each actual text excerpt, you must click on the (more . . .) at the end of the post intro.

Comments from humans as well as felines are very welcome.