| PARTS | TOPICS |
|---|---|
| Preview (PDF) | |
| 1 | Divide and conquer (PDF) |
| 2 | Symmetry and invariance (PDF) |
| 3 | Discarding information (PDF) |
| 4 | Backmatter (PDF) |
Calculating logarithms using musical intervals (PDF)
Constants for back-of-the-envelope calculations (PDF)
The course readings were taken from a manuscript for the course notes. The manuscript is available as one file or broken up into its four major parts. Chapter 3 in Part 1 is unavailable.
Entire book (PDF - 1.2 MB)
| PARTS | TOPICS |
|---|---|
| Preview (PDF) | |
| 1 | Divide and conquer (PDF) |
| 2 | Symmetry and invariance (PDF) |
| 3 | Discarding information (PDF) |
| 4 | Backmatter (PDF) |
Readings given in the table below were designed to be read after that session's discussion and are taken from the manuscript above.
| SES # | READINGS |
|---|---|
Introduction: | |
| 1 | Preview (PDF) Managing complexity (PDF) Pit spacing (PDF) |
Managing complexity: | |
| Heterogeneous hierarchies: | |
| 2 | Tree representations (PDF) Oil imports (PDF) |
| 3 | Gold or bills? (PDF) |
| 4 | Random walks (PDF) Random walks for accuracy (PDF) |
| 5 | UNIX (PDF) |
Removing spurious complexity: | |
| Proportional reasoning: | |
| 6 | Triangle bisection (PDF) |
| 7 | Pentagonal heat flow (PDF) Introduction plus spring mass period (PDF) Mountain heights (PDF) |
| 8 | Animal jump heights (PDF) Calculus (maximizing a quadratic) (PDF) Jump heights (PDF) |
| 9 | Calculus (maximizing gain of a second-order system) (PDF) Power limits to jumping (PDF) |
| 10 | Falling cones (PDF) Calculus (maximizing a quadratic) (PDF) |
| 11 | Drag and jumping (PDF) |
| 12-14 | Cycling, swimming, flying (PDF) |
| Conservation/box models: | |
| 15 | Conservation cube (PDF) |
| 16 | Flight (PDF) |
| 17 | Flight (scaling) (PDF) |
| 18 | Flight (explicit range and speed) (PDF) |
| Dimensions and afterword: | |
| 19 | Algebraic symmetry (PDF) |
| 20 | Economics example; pyramid example (PDF) |
| 21 | Dimensionless groups (PDF) Hydrogen size (PDF) |
| 22 | Densities (PDF) Hydrogen size by physics (PDF) |
| 23 | Long-lasting learning 1 (PDF) |
| 24-25 | Bending of light (PDF) |
| 26-29 | Long-lasting learning 2 (PDF) Buckingham Pi Theorem (PDF) |
Discarding actual complexity: | |
| Special cases: | |
| 30-31 | Pyramid volume (PDF) Pulley acceleration (PDF) |
| 32-34 | Drag! (PDF) |
| Discretization: | |
| 35-36 | Random walks and keeping warm (PDF) |
| Spring models: | |
| 37-38 | Waves (PDF) |