Publisher's Weekly Review
MIT's Lewin is deservedly popular for his memorable physics lectures (both live and on MIT's Open Course Web site and YouTube), and this quick-paced autobiography-cum-physics intro fully captures his candor and lively teaching style. Born in 1936, the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, Lewin survived WWII in the Netherlands, fell madly in love with physics and astronomy, and discovered his passion for teaching while working his way through graduate school. Like his lectures, the book stresses his hands-on approach, reinforcing that "physics is fundamentally an experimental science," with every discovery rooted in "measurements and their uncertainties." Salad spinners enhance a discussion of Newton's laws. Playing with straws vividly demonstrates air pressure, and a review of cutting edge x-ray astronomy (in which he has made important discoveries) covers neutron stars, black holes, and mysterious "x-ray bursters." As joyful as Richard Feynman's Lectures in Physics (but without the math), this text (written with the aid of University of Hartford historian Goldstein) glows with energy and should please a wide range of readers. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Lewin may be the only physics professor in the world who celebrates the beauty of Maxwell's equations for electromagnetic fields by passing out flowers to his delighted students. But for this teacher, the marvels of science should move our spirits, not merely tax our brains. And as the hundreds of thousands of students who have witnessed his lectures in person or online can attest, this classroom wizard transforms textbook formulas into magic. His enthusiastic instruction can even transport students into the crushing depths of black holes and into the perplexing mysteries of X-ray binaries. Even in demonstrations of down-to-earth principles, Lewin's rare creativity shines through; for instance, when he converts his mouth into a suction pump for drawing cranberry juice up a 16-foot straw and when he uses red and green lasers to show the fascinating interplay of light waves. Lewin provides yet more excitement in the help he gives students and readers in conducting their own low-tech experiments, such as making a driven oscillator out of a jump rope and conjuring up a rainbow with a garden hose. Readers may use the links Lewin provides to watch his mesmerizing lectures on YouTube and MIT websites, but the text itself is a passport to adventure.--Christensen, Bryc. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
This biography/autobiography (written in the first person with the collaboration of Univ. of Hartford historian Goldstein) recounts the career of Lewin, the popular teacher of introductory physics at MIT. Lewin's physics lectures have become famous worldwide through the Internet, and the professor affected the learning of thousands of students of this basic subject in science. The book is about not only a charismatic teacher but also his research in the field of X-ray astronomy. Lewin and Goldstein cover the personal as well as the professional side of a physicist's life and growth both as teacher and researcher. The chapters cover a gamut of topics of special interest to Lewin, ranging from Newton's laws to electromagnetism, and from X-rays to black holes. Two brief appendixes provide some mathematical background to the significance of scale in understanding the properties of objects and the formulation of Newton's law of gravitation. The book has no mathematical equations to deter the general reader. A good index supports the text. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. N. Sadanand Central Connecticut State University
Kirkus Review
With the assistance of Goldstein (History/Univ. of Hartford), Lewin (Physics/MIT), best known to a large international audience for his online physics lectures, delivers a readable book about the subject.A pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy, the author has been teaching three core physics courses at MIT since 1966, when he first came to the United States from Holland. Lewin writers that physics is "fundamentally an experimental science." A skeptic about the claims of string-theory proponents, who, he writes, have "yet to come up with a single experiment, a single prediction," the author contrasts it to his approach as an experimentalist and as a teacher whose aim is to explain "the remarkable ways in which physics illuminates the workings of the world." This has led him to a unique style of teaching in which he uses dramatic demonstrations in order to engage students' interest and awaken their excitement, while de-emphasizing mathematical formulas. He tells how, in a lecture on Newton's laws, he shows the difference between mass and weight by having a student on a scale stand on tiptoe, causing the scale to register an apparent weight gain. The lecture material covered in the bookfrom Galileo to rainbows to sound waves to electromagnetismis accompanied by online links to videos of his classroom lectures. In the last third of the narrative, he gives a fascinating account of his own experimental work.A delightful scientific memoir combined with a memorable introduction to physics.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Lewin-physics professor at MIT for more than three decades, public lecturer, and expert featured on 60 Minutes and in national newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post-now comes to us in this delightful book, an autobiography combined with an introduction to physics. It is rare to see physics communicated to a general audience in such an agreeable way, but Lewin pulls it off with a twinkle in his voice from the first page to the last. He tells of his teaching (via classroom stories) and his research (in the field of X-ray astronomy) with a marvelous, light touch. He sprinkles references to relevant websites throughout the text, adding a secondary, electronic component. This book makes you want to take physics all over again! Verdict An excellent recruiting lure for physics majors and a real joy to read. Recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in science.-Margaret Dominy, Drexel Univ. Lib., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
