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Re: Res cap size charge



Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net> 

Tesla list wrote:
 >
 > Original poster: "Philip Chalk" <phil-at-apsecurity-dot-com.au>
 >
 > Hi all,
 >
 > I have a book named 'Calculus made easy' by Silvanus P. Thompson (3rd
 > edition, St Martin's Press, New York) Think I got it from Amazon.
 >
 > It was mentioned by Richard Feynman in one of his books, as the book
 > with which he taught himself calculus before encountering it at school.
 > So I thought, Good enough for Feynman, good enough for me.
 >
 > It is a 250 page paperback, first published 1910. Under the title it
 > says - "Being a very-simplest introduction to those beautiful methods of
 > reckoning which are generally called by the terrifying names of the
 > DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS and the INTEGRAL CALCULUS." !!
 >
 > The prologue, in part, says -
 >
 > "Considering how many fools can calculate, it is surprising that it
 > should be thought either a difficult or a tedious task for any other
 > fool to learn how to master the same tricks."
 >
 > "......The fools who write the text-books of advanced mathematics - and
 > they are mostly clever fools - seldom take the trouble to show you how
 > easy the calculations are."
 >
 > "Being myself a remarkably stupid fellow, I have had to unteach myself
 > the difficulties, and now beg to present to my fellow fools the parts
 > that are not hard.  Master these thoroughly, and the rest will follow.
 > What one fool can do, another can."
 >
 > Anyway, it is not an electronics, or engineering-oriented book, though
 > there are some 'electrical' example problems.  It seems to have been
 > intended as a school text.
 >
 > It is however a very good, 'from the ground up' treatment of calculus,
 > designed to give an understanding of the fundamentals, rather than just
 > the ability to 'do problems'.
 >
 > I would recommend it to anyone - especially the mathematically
 > challenged :-)
 >
 > Regards,
 >
 > Phil Chalk

	Sylvanus Thompson was a renowned educator, author, AND engineer.  I
don't have this book but have a 1900 edition of his "Elementary
Principles of Electricity and Magnetism" [approximate title, the book is
in my book case at work].  It was the second edition of a version
originally published in the early 1890's and had been brought up to date
with reference to "Hertzian waves" and things like that.  Includes a
description of a three phase generator.  In addition to the teaching
part he has a lot of interesting references and pictures of devices
going back to the 1830's (not so long ago in his time).  Anyhow, this
book is so good that it's still my standard reference for some
subjects.  If his calculus book is anywhere of the same grade as this
one it must be worth having and I'm going to try to find a copy to
supplement my old 1942-3 college texts.

Ed