Megumi is an all-star athlete, but she's a failure when it comes to physics class. And she can't concentrate on her tennis matches when she's worried about the questions she missed on the big test! Luckily for her, she befriends Ryota, a patient physics geek who uses real-world examples to help her understand classical mechanics-and improve her tennis game in the process!

You'll also learn how to:

• Apply Newton's three laws of motion to real-life problems

• Determine how objects will move after a collision

• Draw vector diagrams and simplify complex problems using trigonometry

• Calculate how an object's kinetic energy changes as its potential energy increases

If you're mystified by the basics of physics or you just need a refresher, The Manga Guide to Physics will get you up to speed in a lively, quirky, and practical way.

In The Manga Guide to Physics, you'll follow alongside Megumi as she learns about the physics of everyday objects like roller skates, slingshots, braking cars, and tennis serves. In no time, you'll master tough concepts like momentum and impulse, parabolic motion, and the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Cute but too easy - 2009-09-11
Reviewer Rating:
My 15 year old daughter loved this book, and it took us as much as 4 days to read it through and through (we read it together). The pictures are lovely, and the comic strips are very very good. But in terms of education I don't feel this book was what we needed. It has lots of theoretical material (comments) which looked unnecessary here. Pictures and stories occupy about 1/3 of the book only. The rest was the comments. The entire book seemed too concise to me.
Anyway, we had a great time to brush up our physics in summer and have some fun. I am going to purchase other books from this series keeping in mind how short they are.

Learn Physics Manga style - 2009-10-01
Reviewer Rating:
Reviewed by Ken Rogers, GCPCUG Member

Should cartoon characters be smarter than their readers? Brilliantly mad scientists and charming absent-minded professors may be stock characters in the comics, but their intellects always seem more fantastic than realistic. A cartoon character with realistic scientific intellect - someone who might remind us of our high school physics teacher, or that lab partner who always seemed one step ahead of you - can too easily remind us of our own intellectual shortcomings, and spoil the casual fun that is at the heart of comics' appeal.

This absence of ordinary genius in comics is what makes Ryota and Megumi, the main characters in The Manga Guide to Physics, so remarkable. The latest in the delightful series of manga technical guides from TREND-PRO and No Starch Press, The Manga Guide to Physics uses a tutor-student relationship to explain complex scientific concepts with real-world examples. Ryota, the tutor, is a schoolboy science whiz who has to be the most unremarkable character I've ever seen in a manga comic. Clean-cut, dressed in a conservative suit and tie, ever polite and reserved - if manga characters were soft drinks, Megumi would be a glass of tepid water. Megumi, the frustrated student-athlete who pleads with Ryota to provide her with physics lessons, is only slightly more colorful - call her a decaffeinated, sugar-free soda.

Both tutor and student are ordinary, but the same cannot be said of their lessons. Make no mistake; The Manga Guide to Physics is a serious work of technical writing. If you don't find vector diagrams and algebraic equations inherently appealing, you'll find this book more than challenging at times. Yet Ryota explains the mysteries of Newton's three laws of motion with the ease of a newscaster reading from a teleprompter, and while Megumi clearly struggles at times she is able to master the material by book's end.

Watching these two unremarkable characters breeze through this remarkably difficult subject could easily be alienating - Ryota could seem aloof and condescending, Megumi annoyingly perky. Yet the relationship that develops between them makes for an appealing story. Ryota awkwardly approaches Megumi after her loss in a tennis match to Sayaka, her rival on the court as well as the classroom. Recognizing and respecting Ryota's knowledge, Megumi politely but forcefully insists that he become her tutor. Ryota feeds off Megumi's eagerness and launches into his fast-paced lessons with confidence. His respect for Megumi's curiosity prevents him from ever talking down to her, and his repeated use of sports analogies shows he understands how best to relate with his student. Megumi's appreciation for Ryota's knowledge and patience keeps her engaged in their lessons, and being the bold one she is the first to acknowledge their mutual attraction. An embarrassed Ryota at first angrily rebukes her observation, but Megumi convinces him to not feel threatened and enjoy their relationship. Ryota and Megumi may indeed be smarter than their readers, but their charming, genuine relationship provides a perfect complement to the technical information provided in the text.

And it bears repeating that The Manga Guide to Physics is a serious, weighty piece of technical writing - Physics for Dummies this is not . While it is certainly no substitute for a physics text, The Manga Guide to Physics is a wonderful introduction to the subject for manga fans with an interest in science.

Great intro especially for High Schoolers - 2009-09-02
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this for a high school physics teacher. Some of her students were having difficulties assimilating content from the textbook or class notes, but loved manga. These books present the basic concepts using narrative, comedy, and thoughtful examples. It isn't all comic, with many pages dedicated to illustrating concepts and problems.

A great gift for any teens starting physics.

Manga guide to... - 2009-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
The manga guide to... series is a great one so far. These books are a great way to get to learn such hard coledge level courses in a fast, easy, and fun way thanks to some cool manga and a professor from japan. Overall the book was very easy to follow and even at times very funny and made the process of learning more fun and enjoyable. I like to think of the fact that as a kid we were taught like this, so why can't those old ways work with such topics as physics? This isn't some sort of little kid comic the jokes and manga itself are for teens and up, and is meant to help out high schoolers or even college students. I really liked this book, and I am even going to try out some of the others, and would highly recommend any of these books to someone who wants to or needs to learn one of the topics of these books.

Enables ordinary readers to readily grasp the basics of physics - 2009-08-16
Reviewer Rating:
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the basics of physics. Not when you can read "The Manga Guide To Physics" by Hideo Nitta (Professor of Physics, Tokyo Gakugei University) who takes the novel approach of utilizing the Japanese animation image (called manga) to explaining the concepts that comprise the science of physics including momentum and impulse, the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration, Newton's three laws of motion, the movement of objects after collision, vector diagrams, kinetic energy calculations, and more! The readers are educated in the 'real world' applications of physics by Megumi, an all-star athlete who is failing in her physics class. She is distracted in her tennis matches as she worries about the questions she's missed on her physics test. That's when her friend Ryota teaches her about physics using everyday objects ranging from roller skates and slingshots, to braking cars and tennis balls. As entertaining as it is informative, "The Manga Guide To Physics" enables ordinary readers to readily grasp the basics of physics and would make an ideal curriculum supplement for a school physics class, and is ideal for anyone seeking to inform themselves about how physics works and is applied to understanding the world in which they live.