The one (and only one) bad thing I can say about Taylor is I think the exercises in the first five chapters are a little too easy; I have found those in the freshman level Kleppner & Kolenkow to be more challenging for the most part (though the numerical exercises are pretty cool). For chapters 6 and beyond I don't have another text to compare to, so I can't offer an opinion there. Still, it's masterfully written and I hope there is never a second author to jump on and ruin it with a new edition like you see sometimes.
Heh, that's the damnedest thing about optics. On the surface, it seems quite intuitive (pun intended). Then one begins to peel back the layers..... Indeed, Taylor is one of the best physics texts, and certainly the best classical mechanics text ever written. I glad you're having a good experience with both. I'll need to find some time to dig into a mechanics book in the near future. I've been working on a shielding projects for some new proton therapy centers around the world. Neutrons are tricky bastards.
Don't worry about it; I thought it might be something simple and intuitive. Taking time to give a complicated explanation would prob be a waste of time for you (and me too) if I don't go really brush up on the subject first and maybe find out on my own anyways. Taylor and Purcell are still pretty fun.
I won't pretend to know specifically, but I can point you in the right direction. It has to do with phase differences induced by light passing from lower refractive index to higher. There are a set of equations known as Fresnel equations that describe this phenomenon. In order to give a more detailed answer though, I'd have to do a bit more digging. Been a bit busy of late though.
Quick physics question: why does the low angle of the sunlight in the early morning make bodies of water like lakes and ponds so reflective? As you can tell I don't remember crap from optics, lol. Strangely enough one morning I was driving west through the mountains when the sky was still dark but just starting to go blue and as I made a turn and looked at a lake maybe 100 feet below and half a mile away it looked like a really bright mirror reflecting the sky. It surprised me because the Sierra crest was about 6-7 miles behind it (towards the west) and 2000-4000 feet above it. The sun wasn't even close to being visible and the sky was still a pretty dark blue behind the completely black Sierra crest. Oh yeah, not a cloud in the sky.
¡Entiendes todo! Vete a la verga, para ser sincero.
No hablo Tex-Mex comrade.
Dude, can you translate Knight Rider for me? http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192704
haha......I've got no clue how this shit works anyway. I just type something and hit post. Likelihood of it not coming off whack is a lot lower with half a liter of Baileys on board. Yeah, I'm getting my drink on early.
Can't be (especially with the 590 SAT math part), but still funny nonetheless. On a side note, I'm fucking retarded, since I replied twice to you today on my own page.
