Yakov Perelman – Astronomy for Entertainment

Posted on May 23, 2012 by damitr

Continuing with Yakov Perelman, we now come to Astronomy for Entertainment. This is a book that I have read as a digital copy only. I do not know if there are any translations in Indian languages, but I know of translation in Spanish. The book discusses many interesting things which will set the imagination running for all the people who will read it.

From  the Preface:

The purpose of the book is to initiate the reader into the basic facts of astronomy. But do not take it as a primer, since our presentation differs essentially from any text-book. Ordinary facts with which you may be acquainted are couched here in unexpected paradoxes, or slanted from an odd and unexpected angle, solely with a view to excite imagination and quicken interest. We have tried to free the theme as far as possible from the professional “terminology” and technical paraphernalia that so often make the reader shy of books on astronomy.

…

The book contains chapters relating to the Earth, the Moon, planets,
stars and gravitation. The author has concentrated in the main on
materials not usually discussed in works of this nature. Subjects
omitted in the present book, will, he hopes, be treated in a second volume. The book, it should be said, makes no attempt to analyze in detail the rich content of modern astronomy.

The book was translated from the Russian by A. Shkarovsky and edited by J. Gibbons and was published by Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1958. I do not know of any other editions.

You can get the book here. (All credits to original uploaders.)

A completely new and clean  scan done by us can be obtained here and here.

 

Update: Added Internet Archive Link | 07 December 2015

 

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Yakov Perelman – Physics for Entertainment

Posted on May 23, 2012 by damitr

We now come to Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman. This was one of the first physics books that I have read. The book as was noted in the earlier post has been translated in various Indian languages. These are some of the covers I could find. If you have/know of anymore please suggest them.

 

 

The books that are available are the ones in English, (volunteers needed for Indian languages). The date of publication being not printed on both of them, but my guess would be (looking at design of the books) 1950s or 1960s. Both were translated from the Russian by A. Shkarovsky and were designed by L. Lamm and were published by Foreign Languages Publishing House. The later editions and the ones in Indian languages were published by Mir.

You can get Volume 1 here  and here, Volume 2 here  and here or as a single volume.

Marathi volume 1

Kannada volume 1 and volume 2

Hindi volume 1 and volume 2

Bangla volume 1 and volume 2

All credits to the original uploaders.

Update: Added Internet Archive Link | 07 December 2015

For magnet / torrent links go here.

Posted in books, foreign languages publishing, physics, science, soviet | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Yakov Perelman – Fun with Maths and Physics

Posted on May 23, 2012 by damitr

We have talked about Yakov Perelman in detail in an earlier post. We now see one of the wonderful works of him titled Fun with Maths and Physics.

 

This particular edition was compiled by I. I. Prusakov and was translated from the Russian by Alexander Repyev. Mir Publishers first published this book in 1984 and second printing was done in 1988. The artists involved with this project were:

Cover: I. Kravtsov, V. Stulikov
Artistic Book Design: I. Kabakov, V. Keidan, I. Kravtsov, D. Lion, S. Mukhin, Yu. Perevezentsev, L. Saksonov, A. Sokolov, V. Stulikov, R. Varshamov, Yu. Vashchenko

Update: 2025 July 26

A new, extremely hi-res/clean scan added.

You can get it here and here

You can get the book here

here and here

Update: Added Internet Archive Link | 07 December 2015

All credits to the original uploader for the 1984 print and thanks to gnv64 for the 1988 print.

Posted in books, mathematics, mir books, mir publishers, physics, science | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Universal Physical Constants

Posted on May 23, 2012 by damitr

In this post we will see a wonderful little book titled Universal Physical Constants by O. P. Spiridonov.This is a book that deals with history of science in a wonderful way. There are six stories to be told about the constants themselves and the way we found their values. The  constants are:

  1. Gravitational Constant
  2. Boltzmann Constant and Avagadro’s Number
  3. Mass and Charge of electron
  4. Speed of Light
  5. Planck’s constant
  6. Masses of neutron, proton and other elementary particles

From the back cover:

The stern academical title of the book is somewhat misguiding tor this is, in fact, a fresh and exciting account of physics, tracing its experimental and conceptual development from the ancient Greeks up to the present day. In thorough studies and heated scientific controversies, it was through the endeavours of many remarkable men that the profound physical significance of the universal physical constants was revealed, sometimes with a complete revision of old views and formation of new physical disciplines. O. P. Spiridonov’s Universal Physical Constants appears to be the first book, both in the USSR and abroad, to be specifically concerned with a systematic discussion of the constants. A “case history” is given for each of them. In telling the story, the author places strong emphasis on logical continuity and the lucidity of his style is never achieved at the expense of scientific strictness.

The book was translated from Russian by Yevgeni Strelchenko and was first published by Mir in 1986.

You can get the book here. and here

Update: Posted link to Internet Archive 03 December 2015

Update: Posted a cleaned new copy on IA August 30, 2020

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Posted in astronomy, books, chemistry, history, mir books, mir publishers, physics, science, soviet | Tagged | 21 Comments

Misha!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by damitr

Many of us have pleasant and unforgettable memories of reading Misha – The Chidlren’s Illustrated Monthly. And suddenly all of them seem to have disappeared. They are no where to be found.

I have found two issues of Misha while browsing the internet. They are:

Update 16 August 2020 added more links

1983, 3rd Issue

1985 9th Issue

and here

1986 10th Issue

and here

1987, 9th Issue

1988, 2nd Issue

and here

1988, 3rd Issue

and here

1988, 4th Issue

and here

1988, 5th Issue

and here

1988, 6th Issue

and here

1988, 7th Issue

and here

1988, 8th Issue

and here

1988, 9th Issue

and here

1988, 11th Issue

and here

All credits and a ton of thanks to the original uploader!

Hope that we have the complete issues of Misha some time soon!

Password: mirtitles

Posted in books, soviet | Tagged , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Questions and Answers in School Physics – Tarasov and Tarasova

Posted on April 18, 2012 by damitr

This book was planned as an aid to students preparing for an entrance examination in physics for admission to an engineering institute. It has the form of a dialogue between the author (the Teacher:) and an inquisitive reader (the Student:). This is exceptionally convenient for analysing common errors made by students in entrance examinations, for reviewing different methods of solving the same problems and for discussing difficult questions of physical theory.

The English edition of this book was published in 1973 and was translated from the Russian by Nicholas Weinstein.

 

Electronic copy typeset in LaTeX here and here.

You can download this wonderful book from here and here.

 

 

Posted in books | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Updates…

Posted on April 18, 2012 by damitr

The link for All About The Telescope has been updated. This is a major revision from the earlier link, in terms of quality. The download size is about ~118 MB.

Update 2: gnv64 has made a (much) smaller version of the above file ~ 7 MB. Check out the new link for that.

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Little Mathematics Library – Images of Geometric Solids

Posted on April 18, 2012 by damitr

We now come to another title in the Little Mathematics Library, this one is titled Images of Geometric Solids by N. M. Beskin

Drawing a plane figure is not geometrically difficult because the image drawn is either an exact copy of the original or a similar figure, e.g. the drawing of a circle looks like the original circle. Drawing geometric solids is quite a different matter. Unfortunately, there are no “spatial pencils” which can trace an object in the air. Such a pencil would “draw” a cube by tracing along its edges. Hence, we have to sketch a cube on paper with an ordinary pencil. A plane image will never be an exact copy of a solid and, therefore, a certain routine ought to be followed in drawing a solid that would create an image of the original in the best way.

What is the book about. Descriptive geometry embraces so
many methods that even a brief account would make up a rather thick volume. Therefore, we shall discuss just one of these methods, so as to enable the reader to make stereometric drawings and solve the respective problems…

This book presents a geometric theory of constructing
stereometric drawings. Having mastered this theory, a reader will be able to make the drawings himself rather than have to stick to the few sample ones.

The first chapter presents the theory, the second one is devoted
to its applications (drawing of a cube, a cone, a cylinder, etc.),
and the third one describes a method of plotting the points of an
image if their coordinates are known.

It is these strategies and routine that this book discusses. Though many things are possible with modern computer programs, but the logic may not be known to people who are using them.

The book was translated from the Russian by Valery Barvashov and was first published by Mir in 1985.  All credits to the original uploader.

Update 26 May 2018

The Internet Archive link.

and here

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Little Mathematics Library – Differentiation Explained

Posted on April 18, 2012 by damitr

We begin with the Little Mathematics Library series once again, after a long break.  We first see the book titled Differentiation Explained by V. G. Boltyansky (Boltyanskii).

The author in the Preface says:

High school students, especially those interested in mathematics, physics and engineering, often ask, ‘What is “higher” mathematics?’ Sometimes they discuss this and similar questions at mathematics clubs at schools.

In this book I have tried to explain, in a way a high school pupil would understand, certain concepts of higher mathematics  such as the derivative, differential equation, the number e, and natural logarithm (pupils are more apt to be aware of and interested in the latter two concepts). Wherever possible, I have tried to illustrate the concepts with problems taken from physics. In addition, I have tried to show that the concepts of “higher mathematics” are mathematical reflections of actual processes, that mathematics and life are connected, not separated, and that mathematics is a growing, not an unchanging, completed science. Not all proofs and arguments are presented with complete mathematical rigour. Some arguments are presented for illustration. This method seems to me more appropriate for a general book.

The book can be used by mathematics and physics clubs at school. Part of the material is taken from lectures the author gave at the request of the advisers of school mathematics clubs at the Moscow State University.

The book was translated from Russian by M. Samokhvalov and was first published by Mir in 1977.  All credits to the original uploader.

The Internet Archive Link

and here

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Higher Maths for Beginners – Zeldovich, Yaglom

Posted on April 17, 2012 by damitr

The book in this post is one of the best introductory books for Higher Mathematics and it has been written by two exceptionally talented people, namely, Yakov B. Zeldovich and Issak M. Yaglom. Just visit the wikipedia pages to see their achievements. If only all the outstanding people in their fields wrote books at popular level, we would be living in a different world. The complete title of the book reads Higher Maths for Beginners (Mostly Engineers and Scientists).

This book is a joint attempt of a physicist and a mathematician to write an entirely new type of book for future scientists and engineers.

…

The purpose of this book is to enable the future physicist (chemist, engineer etc.) to use higher mathematics in his or her work by mastering its methods without going into full logical substantiation of them, allowing the student to view mathematics as a section of natural sciences and to solve as many concrete  problems as possible.

This book is intended for beginners, that is, for high-school students in the upper grades, students of trade schools and vocational schools, and students in the first years of college. We also have in mind anyone who by himself wishes to become better acquainted with higher mathematics, say, people who finished school some years ago

The book was translated from the Russian by Eugene Yankovsky and was first published by Mir in 1987.

You can get the book here and here.

All credits to the original uploader.

Update: Posted Internet Archive Link 03 December 2015

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Posted in books, mathematics, mir books, mir publishers, physics, science | Tagged , , , , , , | 37 Comments