Reddit mentions of The Cartoon Guide to Physics (Cartoon Guide Series)

I'm a bike lawyer in the US. Here's what I would do:

1.) Do you have a "following too close" law? If so he violated it.

2.) Get a high school physics teacher, or whatever the equivalent level is there, to write you a letter explaining transfer of energy and the level of energy it would take to cause a dent in a bumper, and essentially how a bike rolling backwards would have insufficient mass and energy to dent a bumper. This level of teacher writes very easy to understand explanations.

You can always buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics-Larry-Gonick/dp/0062731009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334349919&sr=8-1

which has amazingly simplified illustrations of physics principles and include those illustrations with your letter asking for damages.

All of Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide to..." or "Cartoon History of..." books are great. Here's one on physics.

This is good stuff. Mind Mapping is mentioned. Try MindJet MindManager and see if you like it. Also when I had difficulties I would also go online and look through free courses or youtube videos to find better explanations.

Also this Cartoon Series helps, heres the Cartoon Guide to Physics:
http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics-Larry-Gonick/dp/0062731009/

There is a great little book called, A Cartoon Guide to Physics. Explains all sorts of phenomena, of the kind one typically encounters in an intro college class, but fun and accessible. I used it to supplement my teaching when teaching college kids, and they loved it. I think it would be very appropriate for a gifted child; it isn't at a very high level and is easy to understand. The cartoons are great and the physical principles are sound. I think it is the sort of thing he might look at again and again and get more out of it with each reading. Apparently this author had also done such a guide with genetics, but I haven't personally read it and can't vouch. I 'd go with the basic physics guide as many experiments and principles are easy to verify for himself---no special lab equipment needed. If the child is interested in science, by all means spark his imagination with various books, but also take the opportunity if you can to teach him about the scientific method and how to conduct experiments, even if it is just at the 'gee whiz' level.


EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics-Larry-Gonick/dp/0062731009

try this. It explains everything up to first year university physics and electromagnetism, but written so a 5 year old can get through it.

The others in here might think this suggestion silly, but I honestly think a good introduction for you would be The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Gonick. He introduces all of the elementary notions of mechanics and electromagnetism, gets you thinking about the basic approaches to quantifying and systematizing problems with algebra, and even touches on some modern physics.

I read it back in grade school, and as a result I had a much easier time getting into the subject in high school. At your level it'd probably be a quick and easy primer, and from there you could jump off into studying some real texts. The Feynman lectures are always recommended to beginners here, and for good reason.

I loved this book when I was a kid. Probably not what you're looking for, though.

Or you could, you know, just buy this.

One of the cartoon guides, maybe?

The physics one isn't his funniest, but still good.

Reminds me of this, which is great.

Do you want to learn real physics or popular science physics which are just conceptual (usually just the "big ideas")?

If it's the latter, this thread has you covered.

For real physics/the basics, whatgoodisaroad commented to mention this book: http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics-Larry-Gonick/dp/0062731009

I second that. It's fun and easy. I'd start there and then move on to actual textbooks, if you want to learn the details.

You might enjoy this.

Darnit, just saw that horrorshow suggested the same thing. Oh well, still a great set of books.

It really doesn't matter which specific game, or engine, or style you start with - it's the concepts that are critical, and can be later applied to any framework. What's most important is to manage the learning curve and keep it fun.

Perhaps start with learning to mod existing games - this will require learning small amounts about a wide range of gamedev-related topics. I remember I started programming and gamedev by writing screensavers and similar in qbasic, and tweaking Red Alert's rules.ini..

Also look for simple game engines (there's zillions) and slowly work up to Unity3D or similar full-fledged engines where you have to do more work at the start, but don't run into limitations nearly as rapidly.

With both modding and making games from scratch happening simultaneously, you're basically doing pincer manoeuvre on core gamedev concepts ;)

Kerbal Space Program's old dev blog has some really intriguing insights into how they worked around Unity's limitations while making that monumental game, and there's many other games' dev blogs which are also a fascinating read when searching for concepts and techniques.

Collect (non-school) books or videos on math topics like linear algebra, physics, matrices, calculus, statistics. These math topics are heavily used in gamedev, others not so much.

Books written for schools tend to be horribly boring and so are actually detrimental to building excitement and inspiration in gamedev; instead, look for books that were designed to be fun rather than grinding drudgery.

I had one in my youth called "The Cartoon Guide To Physics" which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend - I suggest you search for similarly engaging and fun books about the other topics, and don't imagine that school can nurture mathematical skill.

Thanks for the suggestion! I definitely don't discount the history of the world, and want to learn about it as well.

I actually own The Cartoon Guide to Physics- and while I appreciate that the style appeals to a lot of people, didn't find it to be quite the right fit for my learning style. That said, I'll look out for more of his books, and definitely give them a shot. Thanks!

Have you tried the cartoon guides? I have one for statistics, and it makes complex topics so much more understandable.