Physics for Scientists and Engineers.

This best-selling, calculus-based text is recognized for its carefully crafted, logical presentation of the basic concepts and principles of physics. Raymond Serway, Robert Beichner, and contributing author John W. Jewett present a strong problem-solving approach that is further enhanced through increased realism in worked examples. Problem-solving strategies and hints allow students to develop a systematic approach to completing homework problems. The outstanding ancillary package includes full multimedia support, online homework, and a content-rich Web site that provides extensive support for instructors and students


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I am opposed to reservation for IIT faculty

Ashok Misra, director of IIT Bombay, on the ups, downs and controversies surrounding his tenure IIT is a brand that's recognized and acknowledged worldwide. "While I am all for setting up premium technology institutions across the country, I think calling them IITs will dilute the brand. Let's face it: the six original IITs are way ahead. The new institutes should be created as a separate and strong brand"

The road from the main entrance of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, to the main building that has the director's office is a straight one. But I take a circuitous route that takes me past the serene Powai lake with solemn wader birds, and along greenery of many shades where magpies dart suddenly. Humans are few, vehicles even fewer. This is as close to heaven as you can get in Mumbai.

Why is Prof Ashok Misra, director of IIT Bombay for the past eight years, leaving this behind? To take over a new assignment in Bangalore as the chairman of the Indian operations of Intellectual Ventures, a US-based private firm that invests in high-tech inventions.

Or is it, as is being speculated, because he is disenchanted with the increasing interference of the Human Resource Development ministry in the institutes of higher learning? The questions are many and Prof Misra, 60, who can answer them, is beleaguered with a sore throat. Sipping hot Ayurvedic concoction for relief, he settles down to reflect on subjects, academic and otherwise.

Why quit the directorship of IIT, Bombay and why now?

After eight most beautiful years of my life, I must move on to do something new. I will be the India head of Intellectual Ventures, a Washington-based firm dealing in intellectual property in high-tech areas. This will be very different from the teaching and research I have done all my life. Why now? Because no one may hire me later. (Laughs) Some say it is because of the increased interference, of late, by the Human Resource Development ministry in the working of institutions of higher learning.

I am more than capable of dealing with issues like these (HRD ministry interference). When the HRD ministry decided to introduce the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota in the IITs, I let my opinion be known. But once the HRD ministry decided on the OBC quota, I implemented it. It started with nine percent OBC reservation this year and we have not had to compromise on the caliber of the students. Let's see what happens about the 27 per cent reservation.

But that's not why I am leaving. I have been associated with Intellectual Ventures for some time. They have great plans and I think this is the right time to make the move.

And now there is talk of reservation for faculty as well?

I am opposed to reservation quotas for faculty members. Merit should be the only criterion in the selection of faculty in the IITs. Good research is good research regardless of who does it. One need not know the caste of the person who has done good work. The downside will be that even if a person is brilliant, people will start dismissing his/her credentials saying they are from reserved category . We have requested the standing committee to reject the idea of reservation for faculty .

You have said that the nine new IITs should not be called IITs. Why?

IIT is a brand that is recognised and acknowledged worldwide. While I am all for setting up premium technology institutions across the country, and I am helping set up one in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, I think calling them IITs will dilute the brand. Let's face it: the six original IITs are way ahead. The new institutes should be created as a separate and strong brand.

A great amount of research work was carried out in IIT, Bombay during your tenure. Did you consciously do that?

Yes. I believe that in order to be counted among the premier institutions of the world, we need to have a lot of quality research. Our scientific papers must be published in international journals. When I took over the directorship in 2000, the PhDs per faculty were 0.19 per cent. Today it is 0.5 per cent. And we are close to achieving the target of two papers published by every faculty member per annum.

Are Indian researchers shying away from pure science because of low remuneration?

Yes, they are shying away . Unless you have good sci ence, you cannot have good technology . It was the discovery of electricity that made so many technological advancements possible. That's why at IIT Bombay, we have many projects on pure sciences.

Looking back, what have been the highs of your stint here?

When I took over, Powai was some isolated place in Mumbai where some people did some academic work. I have tried to establish connectivity between the corporate world and the academics. This creates a win-win situation for both.

Corporates benefit from our research and we from the money they invest in research. Having said that, I must add that despite initial interest, the corporates are slow in loosening their purse strings, barring the Bajaj group that has donated Rs 7 crore so far.

Activating our alumni network has helped me raise funds for IIT Bombay. New chairs are being established and more money is coming in which will help us remunerate our faculty better.

And the lows?

Sometimes the cumbersome procedures in getting new constructions really bogged me down. But I found a way out. I have outsourced it to the department of construction of Atomic Energy department by appointing them as consultants.

Source : Hindustan Times

Everyone gets into IIT here.

All 30 students of Super 30, an innovative coaching class for the under-privileged in Patna, cracked the IIT-JEE this year.
Super – 30, Bihar’s famed springboard into the Indian Institute of Technology has done it again, this time with cent percent success. All the 30 aspirants enrolled at the Coaching Institute have cracked the 2008 IIT Joint Entrance Examination. Thirty seven other students, guided at its Super-100 group, guided free of cost at the centre, too, made it to the IIT’s.
Like previous year, majority of the successful candidates are from the underprivileged section of the society. The 67 successful candidates include sons of a construction laborer, a vegetable vendor and many other low income group people. They spent 8 grueling months at the pioneering coaching centre, living and pursuing their IIT Dreams together.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Super 30 has achieved phenomenal success in what is believed to be one of the toughest competitive examinations in the world. This is also the first time that the institute has scored cent per cent. In 2003 only 18 of the 30 students had managed to clear the examination. The success rate has soared with every passing year. In 2004, 20 students were selected and in the next year , 22 made it to the IIT’s. In 2006 the number of successful aspirants was 26 which rose to 28 the last year.
But for the founders of Super-30 mathematician Anand Kumar, who is the director of the centre and Bihar’s additional DGP Abhayanand, who teaches the aspirants Physics- this year’s super success is sweeter because it has silenced critics.
Last year, Anand and Abhayanand had announced the closure of the institute after a few institutes claimed that some of the successful Super-30 students had benefitted from their coaching too. However public pressure forced the duo to reconsider their decision for the sake of thousands of meritorious but poor students.
“This year’s results are a great morale booster for all of us. We’ll strive to repeat it every year from now on”, a jubilant Anand said, adding that last year’s controversy had made the students and the faculty more determined.
Till last year, Dalit and Backward caste students cracked the IIT-JEE “But this year some students of the minority community have succeeded.” said Abhayanand.
It is the method of teaching at the Super-30 that makes all the difference say the students. One of the two successful girls this year, Palak Agarwal, said the teachers don’t leave a single topic untouched and provide novel methods to solve them.
As for its founders, the secret of Super 30’s success lies in its difference from other Coaching Centres. For one, Super-30 takes in only under-privileged children and they aren’t charged at all.
The rewards are more than ample: seeing the most deprived gaining foothold on the bright future.
Anand had once dreamt of higher studies in the US but financial constraints shattered them. Today, he sees his ambition being fulfilled through the more than 150 IITians he has tutored over the years.

Chemistry Today, July 2008

Feynman Lectures on Physics.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton, and Matthew Sands is perhaps Feynman's most accessible technical work and is considered a classic introduction to modern physics. It includes lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism, Newtonian physics, quantum physics, and even the relation of physics to other sciences. It has three volumes, which were compiled from material presented in a two-year introductory physics course given in the early 1960s by Feynman at Caltech. Six readily accessible chapters were later compiled into a book entitled Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher, and six more in Six Not So Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time.

The first volume focuses on mechanics, radiation, and heat. The second volume is mainly on electromagnetism and matter. The third volume, on quantum mechanics, shows, for example, how the double-slit experiment contains the essential features of quantum mechanics.


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Vogel's Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry (5th Edition)

Most widely used, established and respected reference manual for the organic chemistry laboratory. Incorporates new reactions and techniques now available to the organic chemist.


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Download DJVU format

Please don't hesitate to ask if you are unsure of what to do with the .djvu format

Which Questions to solve from Irodov?

Since many questions from Irodov are not in JEE Syllabus, "which are the questions from Irodov that an IIT Aspirant should solve?" is the question that is asked by many aspirants.This article might guide you and help you save a lot of time.

Part I
1-54, 58, 59-108, 110, 118-131, 133-199, 200-206, 209-233, 234-266,
269-279, 290-299, 309-311, 315-324, 326-332.

Part II
1-20 ,26-41 ,43-56 ,62-79 ,116-127, 149 ,160-181 ,247-251 ,254-257

Part III

1,2, 4-15, 19-42, 46-53, 101-108, 110, 112-142, 144, 145, 146 ,147-152,
160, 163, 169, 170-209, 219-230, 232-237, 242-255, 257-266, 269-271, 288-307,
311-318, 323, 324, 326-331, 334, 335, 372, 373, 374, 378, 382-392.

Part IV
1-65, 95-100, 121-125, 134, 135-147, 150, 153-156, 158, 160-180, 183, 185-187.

Part V
13-24, 26-28, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 69-77, 247, 249 ,251,
260-268, 270, 273-281.

Part VI
21-28, 30-43, 46-48, 49-53, 133-142, 214-232, 249-280,289.

Information provided by Resonance,Kota.

That's it! In case you missed the Irodov download click here

Coming up Next: Interview by Shitikant Bihari

Organic Chemistry - Morrison and Boyd.

"Do any chemists or (pre-med students) who graduated in the last 40 years not tremble when they hear the phrase 'Morrison and Boyd'? More than 2 million students have used this book, now in its sixth edition."

—From Chemistry, Spring 2001 issue in which R.T. Morrison and R. N. Boyd's Organic Chemistry was named one of the Silver Shelf winners in "The Great Books of Chemistry."


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Physical Chemistry - Peter Atkins and Julio de Paula

With its modern emphasis on the molecular view of physical chemistry, its wealth of contemporary applications (in the new “Impact on” features), vivid full-color presentation, and dynamic new media tools, the thoroughly revised new edition is again the most modern, most effective full-length textbook available for the physical chemistry classroom. Atkins' text not only provides a great mathematical foundation to the equations that are used, but explains physically the events that lead to writing the equations. If you need to learn and understand central concepts of physical chemistry, you need look no farther then Atkins.
Atkin's text is the gold standard of the field, lovingly written and organized, text books simply don't get much better than this.
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Instructors Solution Manual

Better Version for Users with higher Bandwidth

Part 1
Part 2
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Download Test on Hybridization.

This test will help you analyze your preparation of the subtopic "Hybridization"


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An IIT Delhi Faculty's view on Reservations!

Nearly six decades after independence, this country is planning to announce that majority of its population is backward and does not have equal opportunity to pursue education and employment. Along with this, it is going to open up a Pandora's Box by various caste groups to be classified as "backward". What an interesting way to
begin the 21st century when finally India was beginning to emerge as a serious player in the new knowledge economy! The major carrot that is being doled out is the seats in the elite medical, engineering and management Institutes. What bothers me is no one is interested in even consulting the people who have built these Institutions and brought them to this stature. I have strong views on efficacy of
reservations in general but here I would confine myself to the issues concerning IITs. At least here with my three decade long association, I can claim to know something. Many of these arguments may be applicable to the other elite Institutions in medical and management disciplines as well.
Today IITs are considered excellent educational institutions. There is a countrywide scramble to get into these with many students spending the best part of their teen years in preparing for its entrance examinations. This should not be confused with ranking of universities where just a couple of IITs make it in the top 500. These rankings deal primarily with the research output and not with the quality of undergraduate education. I can confidently say that any ranking of quality of undergraduate engineers produced would put IITs in the top 20 worldwide if not in the top 10. And it is this achievement that is going to be hard to maintain with the proposed reservations policy. Before we go any further, it would be best to
examine how this excellence has been achieved.
The fundamental contribution that the Central Government has made to these institutions is in generous funding (by Indian, not global standards) combined with unmatched autonomy. The main point of engagement between the Government and these Institutions has been through the appointment of Directors. Except for a brief period
during the last administration, the Governments had refrained from any major politicking in these appointments. They have by and large appointed the best available applicant Professor from the same or another IIT for the job. These venerable people had themselves a great pride in these Institutions and have ran the Institutes with the best of their abilities (maybe not always efficiently but always
fairly) without major vested interest.

For someone outside IITs to understand the power of this position is not easy. The Director virtually appoints the complete senior administration including the deputy directors and deans, chairs all the faculty selections including that for the Professors, is the chairman of the senate and thus the academic head, is the financial head and also the administrative head. For most people living in the
campus, which includes 90% of faculty and students, he is also the chairman of the local municipality (all major complaints on water, electricity, sewage etc. would reach him). This ensures that the buck almost always stops with him and thus decision making is unavoidable. This autonomy that has been the hallmark of these
institutions is being eroded. There were attempts in the last Government (fortunately not vigorously pursued) to tell IITs what to teach. The present decision would strike at the fundamentals of IITs as the Government no longer feels whom to teach and how many to teach is best decided by these Institutions themselves. This in my opinion is the most dangerous fallout as it strikes at the very core of the success of these Institutions. Once the lines of control gets
blurred, there would be no stopping, as today's political functioning is clearly not dictated by long term vision. Soon we could have reservations in faculty and create a caste based patronage system which has destroyed many of the once excellent
state universities.

In IITs, the faculty selected and promoted solely based on merit has maintained a high standard of ethical behavior, have taken their teaching and research seriously, refrained from politicking yhemselves and supported the Institute in many ways to fulfill its commitments. Who are these faculty members? A large number are our
own alumni (undergraduates as well as postgraduates), majority of them have studied or conducted research in the west and almost all of them have had opportunities of pursuing financially much more lucrative careers in India and abroad. Thus each faculty member is here by choice and he/she has exercised that choice with one major
attraction - opportunity to teach, interact and work with extremely bright students perhaps unmatched anywhere. It is this attraction that is being tampered with. In a situation where all IITs are short of faculty and desperately trying to innovate to attract faculty under the constraints of the pay commission dictated salaries (while
competing with Sensex based salaries), this is not a pleasant development.

IITs have had reservations for SC/STs for decades. Why would this be different? Aren't these students likely to be better prepared than the students admitted under the existing reserved category? Here I would like to share some of the facts with the readers. IITs have been admitting SC/ST students for years under two modes. From the general category, a significantly lower JEE cutoff is decided and reserved category students scoring above this cutoff are admitted directly to the UG programmes. Another still lower cutoff is decided and reserved category students from this set are admitted to a one year preparatory course conducted by IITs themselves. After passing this course, they can join the programmes without having to appear in JEE again. Even this exercise collectively yields less than 15%
in IIT Delhi though the quota amounts to nearly 22.5%. Half of the reserved category students manage to clear courses comfortably while the other half struggle on the margins. What would be called a good performance (cumulative grade point average or CGPA of 8 and above) and is achieved by nearly forty percent of general category
students, is rare and occurs once in many years among the reserved category students. It is not that all general category students do well. There is nearly a 5% "dropout" rate even among them which is a cause of concern but mainly attributed to the burnout due to JEE preparation phase. The "dropout" students have no effect on teaching as they neither are regular nor make their presence felt in classes.
The remaining part of weak students is too small and at present hardly any instructor would pitch his / her course at that level. On the other hand, the present policy may introduce a large band of weak students which no instructor can ignore. This would definitely result in drop in the quality of education. It is the hypocrisy ofthe highest order that on one hand the reservation for SC/STs is
considered a success and quoted for extension to OBCs, and on the other hand, no hard data on the performance of these students is available in the public domain. Some administrators I talked to consider this data as sensitive! Analysis of where the reserved category students go after graduation would be enlightening. I do
not have the sensitive data but my experience shows that most of them either go to services like IAS/IES or to the public sector companies. Normally this choice of careers by IIT graduates should be a matter of satisfaction except that both these entries are again using the reservation quota. Is it empowerment or crutches for life?

In this whole episode, the most stunning news for me was when the Hon'ble minister announced increase in intake to compensate for the reservations. This would amount to nearly 56% overall increase in undergraduate intake in the IITs. This showed complete ignorance of what makes IIT undergraduate education tick. There are few
Institutions in the world where undergraduate students get to interact one to one and so freely with such high-caliber faculty. Students are advised on courses in small groups, interact over hostel dinners, go on industrial trips and finally carry out a well supervised project. Every undergraduate student does an intensive "novel" project either individually or in groups of two and he/she is effectively "supervised" by a faculty member. Many of them result in publications. This system evolved when the student-faculty ratio was 6:1 and is getting strained at the seams when it has reached 12:1. In some disciplines like Computer Sciences and
Electrical Engineering where market competition is heavy, it has already gone to 20:1 and above. Though currently producing excellent results, it is a highly non-scalable mechanism. Intake increase on this scale, when effectively faculty strengths in key areas are decreasing could sound a death-knell to one of our few international brand names.

I have a poser for Prof. Jayati Ghosh, my well renowned colleague from JNU and a member of the knowledge commission. She has justified reservations in IITs based on the poor ranking of IITs internationally. Her argument is anyway these Institutions are not great, why they should crib about the quality of intake. She nowhere states that any of the 400+ odd Institutions worldwide which are ranked above IITs have achieved their status through reservations. In that case all Tamil Nadu Engineering Colleges with 69% reservation for decades (openly defying the Supreme Court suggested
norm of 50%) now should be at the top.

Postscript: Finally, I would like to seek opinion on the composition of our next Olympics team. We have admittedly done much poorer in sports than education. Should our next Olympics team be chosen on caste basis or perhaps with adequate representation to athletes aged 40+ who are at present completely unrepresented? After all we do not have much to lose as we only win one bronze medal in
alternate Olympics. I would no longer be surprised if some future Sports Minister considers caste based quotas for our national cricket team. After all that would be worth a few votes and the nation would have been well prepared by then to cheer only for its own caste brethren!


The author is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Delhi. He has been with IIT Delhi since 1977 except for a three year stint outside India. Currently he is on Sabbatical and working with a startup. The views represented here are completely his own.[Although I wholeheartedly agree with him]
M. Balakrishnan
5, Taxila Apartments
IIT Delhi Campus,
New Delhi - 110016

Download Test on Solutions!

This test will help you analyze your preparation of the topic "Solutions"

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PS: i know some of you are eagerly waiting for Morrison Boyd but please do keep your paitence for some more time. I will be uploading it shortly!

Download test on ThermoChemistry

This test will help you analyze your preparation of the topic " ThermoChemistry"

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Download- Plane Trignometery by S.L. Loney

S.L. Loney's book on Plane Trigonometry covers all important aspects of trigonometry from the point of view of JEE. This book comes highly recommended for JEE and is recommended by many coaching institutes all over India.


To View book Download WinDJView First!

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Coming Up Next: Organic Chemistry by Morrison and Boyd

Download MotionMountain Physics Textbook!

Motion Mountain is a free physics textbook on the internet written by Christoph Schiller (*1960). He gives the following aim:

Across all languages, physics is the science with the worst textbooks. This project wants to change this, by producing a simple, vivid and up-to-date introduction to modern physics. 'Simple' means that concepts are stressed more than formalism; 'vivid' means that the reader is continuously entertained, motivated and challenged; 'up-to-date' means that modern research and present ideas about unification are included. The subtitle of the text, The Adventure of Physics, sums up these three aspects.

The book, with 1498 pages, is divided into six parts, covering mechanics and thermodynamics, special and general relativity, electrodynamics and optics, quantum theory, advanced quantum theory with nuclear and particle physics, and the unification of quantum theory with general relativity. The last three parts are not yet finished.

The book provides numerous photographs, a large number of puzzles, topics from sport, biology and neural science, and presents many modern research results not typically found in conventional physics texts. There are about two enlarged and revised editions of the texts per year.



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Fall, Flow and Heat.

Realtivity

Light,Charges and Brains

Quantum Theory

Pleasure, technology and Stars

Motion without Motion - What are space, time and particles?

Note: While this book is not specifically written for JEE, yet going by the good reviews this book is an interesting read for Physics Enthusiasts!

Cheat Sheets and Tables

Here is list of cheat sheets and tables that I've written.You can print them and stick them to use as a memory tool. Most of these are pdf files and so you will need the Adobe Viewer to view them. You can download the latest version here. [Acrobat Reader 9]

Algebra Cheat Sheet - [pdf] - This is as many common algebra facts, properties, formulas, and functions that I could think of. There is also a page of common algebra errors included. Currently the cheat sheet is four pages long.


Algebra Cheat Sheet (Reduced) - [pdf] - This is the same cheat sheet as above except it has been reduced so that it will fit onto the front and back of a single piece of paper. It contains all the information that the normal sized cheat sheet does.

Trig Cheat Sheet - [pdf] - Here is a set of common trig facts, properties and formulas. A unit circle (completely filled out) is also included. Currently this cheat sheet is four pages long.

Trig Cheat Sheet (Reduced)- [pdf] - My standard trig cheat sheet reduced to fit onto the front and back of a single piece of paper. It contains all the information that the normal sized cheat sheet does.

Calculus Cheat Sheets - Because of the size of this I've got a full version as well as several that are broken up by subject. Each cheat sheet comes in two forms, one in full sized and one that has been reduced so that two pages will one side of a piece of paper. All reduced cheat sheets contain the same information as the normal sized cheat sheets. Here are the various cheat sheets that I've got at this point.

Complete Cheat Sheet - [Full Size] [Reduced] - This contains common facts, definitions, properties of limits, derivatives and integrals. Most of the information here is generally taught in a Calculus I course and there is some information that is generally taught in a Calculus II course. The full sized version is 11 pages

Limits Cheat Sheet - [Full Size] [Reduced] - This is the limits portion of the Complete Cheat Sheet. The full sized version is 2 pages.

Derivatives Cheat Sheet - [Full Size] [Reduced] - This is the derivatives portion of the Complete Cheat Sheet. The full sized version is 4 pages.

Integrals Cheat Sheet - [Full Size] [Reduced] - This is the integrals portion of the Complete Cheat Sheet. The full sized version is 5 pages.

Common Derivatives and Integrals - [pdf] - Here is a set of common derivatives and integrals that are used somewhat regularly in a Calculus I or Calculus II class. Also included are reminders on several integration techniques. Currently this cheat sheet is four pages long.

Common Derivatives and Integrals (Reduced)- [pdf] - My common derivatives and integrals table reduced to fit onto the front and back of a single piece of paper. It contains all the information that the normal sized table does.

Table of Laplace Transforms - [pdf] - Here is a list of Laplace transforms for a differential equations class. This tables gives many of the commonly used Laplace transforms and formulas.

Cheat Sheets authored by Paul Dawkins

Online Integrator!

Can be used to check answers to integration problems
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Download Test on Gaseous State

This test will help you analyze your preparation for the sub-topic "Gaseous State"

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