Aerobatics

It is in these words that many teachers characterize the reading of general physics for freshmen. Indeed, the introduction to the physics of yesterday's schoolchildren who still have neither training in the field of higher mathematics, nor skills of serious independent work is an extremely responsible task that largely determines the formation of the future physicist, which lays the foundations of the style of his thinking. The course of general physics for non-physics-future engineers, chemists, biologists, geologists is even more important: if some flaws in the preparation of a physicist-physicist can be corrected in the future, then other specialties are unlikely to present this opportunity. It is not surprising that many classics of science who not only gave excellent lectures, but also left perfectly written textbooks pay attention to teaching general physicists.

This time I want to remind readers of one such book, in my opinion, somewhat underestimated and not the most popular among the teachers of most universities. We are talking about the book [1], written by L.D. Landau and his students. Its initial text, as evolves from the preface, was prepared back in 1937, but “for various reasons,” the textbook saw the light only in 1965. Here is what the student and co -author of Landau Alexander Ilyich Ahizer writes about these reasons [2]:

This book was published in Moscow in Gostokhizdat, and we received the Granks in 1938, when Landau was arrested. On the title sheet, the surname Landau as an enemy of the people was exhausted. Only two surnames appeared: mine and E.M. Lifshitsa. We inscribed the name of Landau in the Grani in the first place, but the matter was not so simple, and me with EM The Lifshits was called to Moscow, to the Central Committee of the All -Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) to the press department. We were accepted by a very intelligent person, <...>, and told us the following: “You wrote a very good and important book, and we want to publish it. But the surname Landau cannot appear in the author’s team as the surname of the repressed.

Therefore, we need to get consent from you to withdraw the name Landau. ” We answered him that this is impossible to do, since the whole book is built on the ideas of Landau, and, in addition, he can be freed, in what form we will appear before him, as villains and traitors? “Yes,” said our interlocutor, “I understand you, but if he is released, we will help to make a second edition.” <...> We went out, saying goodbye to him, and soon after that we learned that he was also arrested. Our book was published under three surnames after the liberation of Landau.

As is known from history, it is in the Kharkov period of his life L.D. Landau was actively engaged in teaching and began to create a modern course of physics, taking into account its rapid development in the first third of the 20th century. The revolutionary methods of Landau have found a peculiar reflection in the complaints of students. So, in the memorandum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the KP (B) from the secretary of the party committee of the Khravchenko party committee dated 15.1.1937 (unfortunately, I could not find the full text of this detailed document on the network, therefore I was forced to rely on my own memory) that at the first lecture Landau announced all the existing physicists of physics and ordered to rely only on the notes of his own lectures that could not be reached. In a natural way, those students received deuces in the exam, and subsequent generations of students are not only a well-known ten-volume of theoretical physics, but also a textbook [1], which in nature in many ways anticipated “Feynman lectures in physics”, which appeared only in the early 1960s.

The main advantage of this book lies in the unique language and style of the presentation of Landau, combining clarity, depth, simplicity and, I am not afraid of this word, poetry. At the same time, the textbook affects such topics that are not common in general physics courses, such as a natural cutting of crystals, solutions, chemical reactions, super -liberation, and shock waves. All this, combined with a small volume of the book, makes it one of the most useful manuals for students. At one time, I recommended it to mathematicians who studied theoretical mechanics, but did not listen to the course of general physics and thoroughly forgot the school physics. One of them later admitted to me that only after this book he realized why the power lines of the electrostatic field of a homogeneously loaded cylinder were directed perpendicular to his axis.

Unfortunately, the last, sixteenth chapter dedicated to sound waves, completely written by A.I. was excluded from the second and third editions. Ahizer. This withdrawal seems all the more strange and disappointing that it does not get out of the general style of the book, and acquaintance with the wave phenomena is appropriate in the first year, it cannot be postponed “for later”.

Was there a continuation?

It is difficult to express my disappointment with words when in my second year I found out that the general physicist from Landau is exhausted by this volume! Fortunately, disappointment did not last long. Closer to the session, it turned out that we have to study a number of topics on our own, and you can find the corresponding material only in the book.

A.I. Ahizer [3]. Published in the Kiev publishing house "Naukova Dumka", this book is little known outside Ukraine; The “reference manual” misleading the subtitle is dictated, apparently, by the need to conduct a publication through the editorial office of reference literature. The author himself defines the book as "a modern overview of electromagnetism, written at the level of general physics." I will allow myself another definition of her genre: the dream of a sortone. An extremely detailed output of all formulas is combined with exceptional clarity and brief presentation. Every time the author writes “easily show”, he shows it, and it really becomes easy! And although the general style of the book [3] is noticeably different from the style [1], numerous virtues make it a full -fledged continuation of the latter in my eyes.

Unfortunately, Alexander Ilyich could not fully realize his plan of the course of general physics. In addition to [3], only Tom, dedicated to atomic physics [4] came out of the press. This last book is already hardly suitable for the role of a textbook, but really represents a detailed review, useful rather prepared than a beginner, a reader. Several years ago, colleagues who accidentally learned about the existence of “atomic physics” from Ahizer were asked to open this book as a whole. Thus, books [3] and [4] have their own reader, they have only to find their publisher!

1. Landau L.D., Ahizer A.I., Lifshits E.M. The course of general physics. Mechanics and molecular physics. -M., Science, 1965 (1st edition); 1969 (2nd edition); Dobrosvet, KDU, 2011 (3rd edition).

2. Ahizer A.I. Essays and memories. - Kharkov, fact, 2003.

3. Ahizer A.I. General physics. Electric and magnetic phenomena: reference guide. - Kyiv: Sciences. Dumka, 1981.

4. Ahizer A.I. Atomic physics: reference manual. - Kyiv: Sciences. Dumka, 1988.

Vladislav Syashchenko,
Dr. Fiz.-Mat. sciences, Belgorod state national research
University