Book Review: The Manga Guide to Physics

There are so many genres of Japanese comics that it doesn't come as a surprise that there's a series dedicated to teaching subjects that are normally taught in schools.

I was curious about the effectiveness of the book, so I emailed the publisher No Starch Press and asked for a review copy. They sent me a PDF version of the book that I could read on my Kindle. The 6-inch Kindle, as I suspected, is a bit small for reading manga - a more comfortable size would be 7 inch.

The Manga Guide to Physics is a great introduction to physics. It has a very simple but entertaining storyline, one about the lead Megumi trying to learn physics so that she can defeat her opponent in a tennis match. Compared to thick physics textbooks, it's certainly a more interesting way to learn physics.

The different concepts of physics are explained and illustrated by using real life examples. You get to learn about how forces work in a tennis match, the safety distance to keep while driving a car, how to get yourself back to the space shuttle using just a wrench, etc. The situations are not too complex, but always towards explaining a certain concept, and does so effectively.

There are four chapters, namely Law of Action and Reaction, Force and Motion, Momentum and Energy. The content is presented one part in manga format, and after each chapter a summary which is more technical in text format with diagrams.

This is a helpful and engaging teaching tool, one that successfully tackles a seemingly intimidating and dense subject as physics. I showed the book to my colleague who used to be a physics teacher and he was very impressed.

This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in learning physics.

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The Manga Guide to Physics is available on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | JP)

The PDF version is available for sale at No Starch Press, but not on Amazon.

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Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn

The PDF version is available for sale at No Starch Press, but not on Amazon.