Why You Should Read That Whole Text Book Right Now

March 20, 2019 Off By EveAim

It's the beginning of a new semester for introductory physics students. I have a new message that might not be very popular: Read the textbook. And I don't just mean, like, here and there. Read the whole thing as as soon as possible. I know many students have different ideas about the role of the textbook in college courses, so let me go over some of the reasons that students should start reading right away.

Textbooks Aren't So Bad

Yes, textbooks aren't perfect. I can think of a bunch of reasons that textbooks suck: They are too expensive, they have too many chapters, they put these stupid sidebars with extra info in them … I could go on. But they're still useful.

Today's textbooks have been refined over several editions to make them more readable (or sometimes just to add extra problems). They cover the basic ideas that are in the course (hopefully), and they usually give a different perspective on the material. It's also common for textbooks to include example problems, connections to other ideas, and plenty of pretty pictures. That's good stuff in there. Don't waste good stuff.

Class Time Should Not Be Textbook Time

There's so much good stuff, in fact, that I tell my student this: If I use all of the class time to go over everything that is in the textbook, then we won't have time to do anything else. In fact, I probably couldn't even cover all the material. On top of that, what's the point of having a book if it's identical to a lecture? In days of yore, before the invention of the printing press, students didn't even have a book. The lecturer's job was simply to take the class book and read it so that students could copy it all down.

Luckily, we're beyond that now. And if we don't spend class time going over every little thing in the textbook, then students can do all sorts of useful things. They could ask questions about things that they don't understand in the book. (Really, who would expect them to fully grok physics by just reading the book?) Also, we can practice solving problems or do things that aren't in the textbook—like use numerical calculations to solve problems with python. It will be fun. Promise.

Students Need to Practice Independent Learning

One of the most important skills a student can acquire in college is to learn how to learn. You can't expect to pick up everything you will need to know and understand for the rest of your life just from your four years in college. In fact, many employers are looking to hire humans that can learn stuff, not people that already know stuff. This is one of the reasons that physicists pop up in all sorts of interesting jobs (see Hidden Physicists).

When you read a book, you are practicing learning. It doesn't mean you already understand everything. If you already understood it, you wouldn't even need to read it. I think all too often people put too much pressure on themselves to not be confused—but remember that confusion is part of the learning process. Don't worry, it's OK to be confused. Trust me.

What Not to Do With a Textbook

In physics, students often use the textbook in the wrong way. The most common misuse is to turn to it as a source for answers. Consider the following physics question:

A 5 kg block is placed on an incline that is angled 45 degrees above the horizontal. If the coefficient of kinetic friction between the two surfaces is 0.2, what is the acceleration of the block?

There are a significant number of students that will start off with the textbook and search to the chapter on inclines. But wait, there is no such chapter! How about the kinetic friction chapter? Again, no such luck. Maybe just flip through the book until there is a problem with a block on a plane—oh, here's one, but it's static friction. OK, well maybe that will work.

But physics problems aren't a game of hide and seek. It's not as if that particular problem is in the book and the student just needs to find it. Instead, physics problems are based on basic, fundamental ideas. For the case of the block on the plane you should use either the momentum principle or forces and acceleration. Remember, it's a textbook, not a scavenger hunt.

How to Read a Textbook

Then what should you do with your book? Every student is a little bit different, but here are some tips. First, open the darn thing. Don't wait until you get stuck on a physics problem to start looking at the book—start on it before class. In fact, as soon as you get that book, why don't you read through it? Read as much as you can. While you are reading, take some notes (or write in the book—depending on your preference and your book). Write down the things that you find confusing. These are like little questions to your future self. You can try to answer them yourself, or they can make excellent questions to ask during lecture class or office hours.

For physics books, there is something else—the examples. Most physics textbooks include sections where a physics problem is solved and the solution is worked out in some degree of detail (how much detail depends on the textbook). Here's my recommendation for dealing with these examples. Start off with the question and see if you can solve the problem. Get as far as you can, and don't give up after just five minutes—keep working on it and try not to look at the solution.

Of course you might eventually need to get a hint; when you do, just look at the next step and not the whole thing. See if that will help you solve the problem. Keep working on the problem and get hints when you get stuck (really stuck). At the end, go through the textbook solution and fill in any of the missing steps. That might seem like a lot of work, but remember that learning is difficult. If learning was easy they would call it pie (you know—easy as pie).