An entertaining and free e-book on physics - the science of motion. Now in its 27th year, it is available in English, but also in French, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Spanish.
Explore the motion of plants, animals, lightning, planets, charge, light and empty space itself! Be fascinated by molecular motors, black holes, the beauty of nature and of the concepts of physics, from the principle of cosmic laziness – least action – to gauge symmetry, the symmetry of charges and quarks!
New in the 2017 edition are the bouncing ball puzzle and the six matches puzzle, details about the Moon's orbit, information on blood flow, a photograph of the shadow of the Earth at the South Pole, more about flower symmetry, the maximum possible Laypunov exponent, speeds faster than light produced by ordinary light bulbs, a movie of the heart beat of a mouse embryo, the motion of trees when they wake up in the morning, the motion of a tumbling brick, and stunning images of the Sun and of the night sky.
Find out what fireworks, mobile phones and butterflies have in common, how muscles work, how colours appear, how levitation is possible, why we can see the stars, and which problems in physics are still unsolved. If you are between the age of 16 and 106, you will enjoy it. These videos show why.
For a present to others or to yourself, get a paper edition at Amazon (in black & white or in colour), at Createspace (in black & white or in colour), or a Kindle version.
Download the files separately here:
Free download of
volume I - FALL, FLOW AND HEAT (145 MB).
Free download of
volume II - RELATIVITY AND COSMOLOGY (50 MB).
Free download of
volume III - LIGHT, CHARGES AND BRAINS (80 MB).
Free download of volume IV - THE QUANTUM
OF CHANGE (38 MB).
Free download of
volume V - PLEASURE, TECHNOLOGY AND STARS (85 MB).
Free download of
volume VI - THE STRAND MODEL – A SPECULATION ON
UNIFICATION (34 MB).
Motion Mountain is written for pupils, students, teachers and anybody curious about nature: the text is full of telling anecdotes, captivating riddles, unusual tables, astonishing photographs and beautiful films. It has been downloaded over 300 000 times.
Entertaining and surprising on every page, the first five pdf files tell about
- Sport, raindrops and animal life: mechanics, gravity and heat,
- Moving empty space and the sky at night: relativity and the structure of the universe,
- Lightning, lasers and nerves: electricity, optics, the brain, language and truth,
- Colours and the quantum of change: quantum physics and light quanta.
- Pleasure and the stars: biophysics, nuclear physics and radioactivity.
The sixth and last volume presents, in contrast to the previous ones, a research topic: it tells about the search for a final, unified theory of physics.
Prizes and rewards are offered for solving a number of challenges and for helping to improve the text.
Donations
are welcome! No profit has ever been made: of the sum spent on the project so far - many tens of thousand Euros - less than a quarter has been covered by donations.
Free Physics Textbook for Download
Motion Mountain Physics Free PDF for Download
Translations
- A free Japanese translation of the volume on relativity and cosmology is available, admirably translated by Hirooka Megumi.
- Free French translations of the three volumes on mechanics & heat, on relativity and cosmology, and on electromagnetism are available – as free pdf or as affordable paper edition – due to the fantastic effort of Benoît Clénet.
- Free Italian translations of the three volumes on mechanics & heat, on relativity and cosmology, and on quantum theory are available, due to the efforts of Salvatore Spampinato and Alessandro Gori.
- A free Spanish translation of special relativity is available, by José Manuel López López.
You are always welcome to expand a translation or to add a new one.