In the Search for Beauty – Smilga

Posted on April 30, 2013 by The Mitr

In an earlier post we have seen a wonderful book on special relativity titled Relativity and Man by V. Smilga. In that post, it was pointed out another book by this wonderful author titled In theSearch for Beauty, which has a very artful cover. I had first seen this book on the wonderful Soviet Books blog.

in-the-search-for-beauty

We were in process of searching this beauty, literally and figuratively both (see my and s.sanjay’s comments in Relativity and Man post), until we got this message from Boris Smilga the grandson of V. Smilga!

Hello. I have stumbled upon this excellent site somewhat accidentally, and was happy to find granddad’s footprints, so to say, on Indian soil. As the keeper of his estate, I happen to have the English edition of “In the Search for Beauty”, and, since you are interested in it, I have scanned it for the common good. You’ll find the file at https://dpworks.net/files/search-for-beauty.djvu (size≈23MB at 300 dpi, md5=718dd7f03a78325e82f0527854a9a394); please contact me if you have any trouble downloading it.

This is something that has really made me happy. I cannot thank Boris enough for this. Thanks once again Boris!!

Now something about the book:

The book takes us on a epic journey on the origins of non-Euclidean geometry  based on the parallel lines postulate and its  culmination in General theory of relativity of Einstein. It starts with era of Greek geometers, Euclid and his fifth postulate. Also the mathematical genius of the poet, polymath Omar Khayyam is given. Then the pages turn to mathematical giants like Bolyai, Lobachevsky, Gauss and their contributions to the development of non-Euclidean geometry. Then we come to general relativity and the final chapter on Einstein. The book is illustrated with witty cartoons throughout. (I have started but not yet finished the book, so the synopsis is not complete or exhaustive, please feel free to add your own review!).

The book was translated from the Russian by George Yankovsky. The book was published by Mir Publishers in 1970.

All credits to Boris Smilga.

You can get the book here (Boris’ link) and here (filecloud)  .

The book is now uploaded to archive.org

and here

Djvu | OCR | 300 dpi| Covers | 175 pages (2-in-1 scan)| 23 MB

Password if needed: mirtitles

Magnet link/torrent links coming soon.

Facing Problems? See FAQs

Contents

1. Before Euclid – Prehistoric Times. 7
2. Euclid. 26
3. The Fifth Postulate. 57
4. The Age of Proofs. The Beginning. 81
5. Omar Khayyam. 92
6. The Age of Proofs. Continued. 129
7. Non-Euclidean Geometry. The Solution. 155
8. Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky. 198
9. Non-Euclidean Geometry. Some Illustrations. 230
10. New Ideas. Riemann. Non-contradictoriness. 246
11. An Unexpected Finale. The General Theory of Relativity. 269
12. Einstein 301

Posted in astronomy, books, history, mathematics, mir books, mir publishers, physics, science, soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Origin And Development Of Life On Earth – Voitkevich

Posted on April 29, 2013 by The Mitr

After a long break in the Science for Everyone Series we come to one of the remaining titles in this series. This one is titled Origin and Development of Life on Earth by G. Voitkevich. This is a sort of sequel to another book by the same author titled Origin and Chemical Evolution of the Earth.

sfe-origin-and-development-of-life-on-earthThe book though included in popular science, series presents a vast panorama of geological events ranging from prehistoric times to the present, period, and covers practically all the landmarks, in the history of evolution.Various stages in the development of plants, animals, andman form a concatenation of scientifically valid discoveries with the disquisition of which the readers will become acquainted.

The author of this book is Prof. George Voitkevich, head of the department of geochemistry and geophysics at Rostov-on-Don State University. His multilateral scientific activity within the domain of the Earth sciences is well known in his own country as  well as elsewhere. His Fundamentals of Geochemistry is at present the standard manual for Soviet universities, some of his books have been translated into European and Oriental languages.

The book was translated from the Russian by G. G. Egrov and was first published by Mir Publishers in 1990.

All credits to the original uploader (presumably Gordon Freeman).

PDF | OCR | Cover | 6.9 MB

 

Update Jan 2020

The Internet Archive Link

Contents
Preface 5
The Earth’s Contemporary Biosphere and Its
Population 9
The Antiquity of Life on the Earth 34
The Organic Compounds in Space 56
A Space History of Carbonic Molecules 73
The Origin of Biosphere and the Main Features
of Its Development 94
The Evolution of Primates and Man 215
Conclusion 224
Bibliography 229

Posted in books, chemistry, geology, life sciences, mir books, mir publishers, science, science for everyone | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Krasnov – Aerodynamics 2

Posted on April 29, 2013 by damitr

In this post we will see Aerodynamics 2 : Methods of Aerodynamic Calculations by N. F. Krasnov. In an earlier post we have seen Volume 1 of this book.

41WkSSjDLQL._SL500_AA300_

Before beginning the second part, readers should be familiar with the theoretical fundamentals of aerodynamics set out in the first part. Study of the material on applied aerodynamics, i.e, on the determination of aerodynamic characteristics, will help students master aerodynamic theory because according to didactic principles, scientific information is best assimilated when used actively to solve practical problems. Such an approach relies on the information stored in the researcher’s memory and on a comprehensive understanding of the logical relations that exist between individual elements.

Mastery of the methods of aerodynamic calculations is important as an it can be used  independently by those interested in individual problems of theoretical aerodynamics.

This book was translated from the Russian by G. Leib. The book was published by first Mir Publishers in 1985.

All credits to the original uploader. Thanks to desperadomar for find this volume.

Update 7 May 2018: The Internet Archive link

and here

PDF|  16.5 MB | Pages: 218 (2-in-1) | OCR | Cover

You can get the book here.
For magnet / torrent links (coming soon)
Password if needed: mirtitles
Facing problems while extracting? See FAQs

Continue reading →

Posted in Aerodynamics, books, engineering, mir publishers, physics, science, technology | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

A Call for Covers…

Posted on February 4, 2013 by damitr

I would like all of you to contribute to our collection of covers of books. Many times it happens that the book is there, but the outer cover is missing. Most of the covers found on the internet are thumbnail sized and not good except for showing in a gallery, though there are some exceptions.

Two good resources are here and here.

But the technical books are to be found very rarely.

I am requesting all of you to submit the covers of the books that you have or have access to, so that it might be helpful to us in the future. Post the links to the images in comments of this post, we  will create a gallery of covers, when we have sufficient number of them, with due credits of course.

If you are planning to scan, please do at minimum 300 dpi with colour option.

Thanks in advance for your support.

 

Posted in books | Tagged , , , | 52 Comments

General Physics – Landau, Akhiezer, Lifshitz

Posted on February 3, 2013 by damitr 
The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the 
principal phenomena and most important laws of physics. The 
authors have tried to make the book as compact as possible, 
including only what is essential and omitting what is of 
secondary significance. For this reason the discussion 
nowhere aims at anything approaching completeness.

Recently while scanning through The Internet Archive I stumbled upon this gem, I did not know that such a book existed, (and I still wonder why did not Mir Publishers publish the Landau, Lifshitz course by themselves). General Physics (Mechanics and Molecular Physics) by L.D. Landau, A.I. Akhiezer and E.M. Lifshitz.

Landau-Akhiezer-Lifshitz-GeneralPhysics

This is a general physics textbook written at first and second year undergraduate level, covering mechanics, symmetry theory, heat and thermodynamics, and solid-state physics. The subjects are covered under the following headings: Particle Mechanics; Fields; Motion of a Rigid Body; Oscillations; The Structure of Matter ; The Theory of Symmetry; Heat; Thermal Processes; Phase Transitions; Solutions; Chemical Reactions; Surface Phenomena; Mechanical Properties of Solids; Diffusion and Thermal Conduction; Viscosity.

The book emphasizes the close relation- ship of physics to physical chemistry, crystallography and the properties of matter to a greater extent than is usual in textbooks of this standard. The approach is also different, and the treatment is distinguished by the unique insight and illumination characteristic of Landau and his school, and already well known to students of physics through the volumes in Landau and Lifshitz’s Course of Theoretical Physics, published by Pergamon Press.

This book was translated from the Russian by J. B. Sykes, A. D, Petford, C. L. Petford and was published by Pergamon Press in 1967.

The book was orginally written in 1937 as written in the Preface, but was not published till 1965, this after the terrible accident from which Landau survived, but never was “Dau” again.

Get the book here and here

Also, don’t forget to check the awesome Folkscanomy Science: Books of a Scientific Nature collection on The Internet Archive which this book is part of, tons (literally and figuratively ) of amazing books on astronomy and physics.

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Posted in books, physics, science, soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Problems in Elementary Mathematics – Lidsky, Ovsyannikov, Tuliakov, Shabunin

Posted on February 2, 2013 by damitr

In this post we will see another problem book in mathematics titled Problems in Elementary Mathematics by V. Lidsky, L. Ovsyannikov, A. Tuliakov and M. Shabunin.

Lidsky_Ovsyannikov-Tuliakov_Shabunin-Problems-In-Elementary-Mathematics-Mir-Publishers

This book is written by a group of Soviet mathematicians under the guidance of Professor Victor Lidsky D.Sc. (Phys. & Maths). It includes advanced problems in elementary mathematics with hints and solutions.

In each section – algebra, geometry and trigonometry – the problems are arranged in the order of increasing difficulty. There are 658 problems in all.

The text can be used in mathematical schools and school mathematical societies.

This book was translated from the Russian by V. Vosolov and was first published by Mir Publishers in 1973.

All credits to the original uploader.

A note on the quality of the book: When the book was picked up from the net, it needed cleaning. We did some cleaning, OCR and bookmarking.

PDF | OCR | Cover | Bookmarked | 25.5 MB (20.5 MB Zipped) | 382 pages | Paginated

Update: 27 April 2018

The Internet Archive link

and here

Continue reading →

Posted in books, mathematics, mir publishers, problem books, soviet | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

Problems in Higher Algebra – Faddeev, Sominsky

Posted on February 1, 2013 by desperadomar

In this post we will see Problems in Higher Algebra – Faddeev, Sominsky  

This book of problems in higher algebra grew out of a course
of instruction at the Leningrad State University and the Herzen
Pedagogical Institute. It is designed for students of universities
and teacher’s colleges as a problem book in higher algebra.

The problems included here are of two radically different types. On
the one hand, there are a large number of numerical examples aimed at developing computational skills and illustrating the basic propositions of the theory. The authors believe that the number of
problems is sufficient to cover work in class, at home and for tests.

On the other hand, there are a rather large number of problems
of medium difficulty and many which will demand all the initiative and ingenuity of the student. Many of the problems of
this category are accompanied by hints and suggestions to be
found in Part II. These problems are starred.

Answers are given to all problems, some of the problems are
supplied with detailed solutions.

This book was translated from the Russian by George Yankovsky. The  book was published by first Mir Publishers in 1978.

All credits to the original uploader.

Get the book here

 Continue reading →
Posted in books, mathematics, mir books, mir publishers, soviet | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Problems and Exercises in the Calculus of Variations – Krasnov, Makarenko, Kiselev

Posted on February 1, 2013 by desperadomar

In this post we will see Problems and Exercises in the Calculus of
Variations by M. L. Krasnov, G. I. Makarenko, A. I. Kiselev .

The calculus of variations is one of the most important divisions of
classical mathematical analysis as regards applications.The authors’
aim was to supply the reader with a certain minimum of problems
covering the basic divisions of the classical calculus of variations,
and they deliberately avoided questions pertaining to the theory of
optimal control.

This book was translated from the Russian by George Yankovsky. The book was published by first Mir Publishers in 1975.

All credits to the original uploader.

Get the book here

and here

Note: Scan is of poor quality.
Continue reading →

Posted in books, mir books, mir publishers, problem books, soviet | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Gantmacher – Lectures in Analytical Mechanics

Posted on February 1, 2013 by damitr

We now come to Lectures on Analytical Mechanics by F. Gantmacher.

The course of analytical mechanics is a foundation supporting such   divisions of theoretical physics as quantum mechanics, the special   and general theories of relativity, and so forth. For this reason, a   detailed presentation is given of variational principles and the   integral invariants of mechanics, canonical transformations, the   Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and systems with cyclic (ignorable)   coordinates (Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 7). Following the ideas of Poincare   and Cartan, the author takes the integral invariants of mechanics as   the basis of presentation. Here they do not represent an   embellishment of the theory but its actual workaday machinery. The   technical applications are associated with a consideration of   constrained systems, which are studied in detail inChapter 1. In a   special section of that chapter, which is devoted to   electromechanical analogies, the possibility is investigated of   extending the analytical methods of mechanics to electrical and   electromechanical systems. In Chapters 5 and 6 are given   applications of analytical mechanics to Lyapunov’s theory of   stability and the theory of oscillations. Elements of modern   frequency methods are given along with the classical problems in the   theory of linear oscillations. Problems in the dynamics of rigid   bodies are taken up in individual examples.

Whom this text is for and what are the prerequisites?

It is assumed the reader is acquainted with the general fundamentals
of theoretical mechanics and higher mathematics. The text is
designed for undergraduate and graduate students of
mechanico-mathematical, physical and physical-engineering
departments of universities, and also for research engineers and
other specialists who feel a need to extend and deepen their
knowledge in the field of mechanics.

This book was translated from the Russian by George Yankovsky and
was first published by Mir Publishers in 1975.

All credits to the original uploader.

Get the book here.

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Posted in books, mir books, mir publishers, soviet | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Bugrov, Nikolsky – Fundamentals of Linear Algebra and Analytical Geometry

Posted on February 1, 2013 by damitr

 

We now come to Fundamentals Of Linear Algebra And Analytical
Geometry by Ya. S. Bugrov, S. M. Nikolsky.

The present book is the first part of our three-part textbook
Higher-Mathematics. We deal here with the fundamentals of the theory of deteminants, the elements of theory of matrices, the theory of systems of linear equations, and vector algebra. The book is also intended to introduce its readers to the basic aspects of linear algebra: linear operators, orthogonal transformations, self-adjoint operators, the quadratic forms and reducing it to the canonical form. Elements of analytical geometry (the straight line, the plane, the straight line in space, and second order curves and surfaces)are also included.

This book was translated from the Russian by Leonid Levant and was first published by Mir Publishers in 1982.

You can get the book here. and here


Edit: 26 June 2023 Link updated to IA
Continue reading →

Posted in books, mir books, mir publishers, soviet | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments