Since being introduced to Lagrangian modeling by Marcie and Aaron, Walid has been developing a renewed interest in physics. Last week he started reading Daniel A. Fleisch's very nicely written Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations, the basic equations of electromagnetics. The book explains the equations intuitively, and is a pleasurable and easy read. Interestingly, the book's careful explanation of the equation's notation reveals aspects that a programming languages researcher could take issue with :-) The key example is being consistent and explicit about binding and usage occurrences of variables. As a result, the book can also be a sensible starting point for a study into formal aspects of the mathematical notation used in this domain. Although the book's notation is not universal, and despite the fact that a quick search on the web shows that there are differing notational conventions, the binding/usage issue appears to be pervasive. Of course, studying math notation and understanding physics are two separate things. This is still a great book about physics.
