Berkeley Physics Course

Volume 2, Electricity and Magnetism, by Purcell (Harvard), is particularly well known, and was influential for its use of relativity in the presentation of the subject at the introductory college level. Half a century later the book is still in print, in an updated version by authors Purcell and Morin. The third edition of the text, published by Cambridge University Press in 2013, was completely revised and updated to SI units.^[2]

History

A

Because of the government support received, the original editions contained notices on their copyright pages stating that the books were to be available royalty-free after five years. The authors got lump-sum payments but did not receive

There was a parallel series of laboratory courses developed by Alan Portis.^[5] The Heathkit company marketed a line of its electronic instruments which had been adapted for use with Berkeley series of lab manuals.^[6]: 149

The series was translated into a number of foreign languages.

• The Feynman Lectures on Physics – another contemporaneously-developed and influential college-level physics series
• Course of Theoretical Physics – ten-volume series of books covering advanced theoretical physics, by Lev Landau and Evgeniy Lifshitz
• PSSC Physics – a contemporaneously-developed high-school-level physics textbook
• Harvard Project Physics – a contemporaneously-developed high-school-level physics textbook

References