ITHACA, N.Y. -- Rebel Þghters blow up a Death Star in Return of the Jedi . Jack's beanstalk grows taller and taller, allowing him to climb to the giant's kingdom in the clouds. But what is the likelihood that an exploding star would result in the bright ßash and loud roar of destruction that George Lucas' audience sees and hears on the screen? How high can a beanstalk really grow and still support its own weight?

Science fantasy? Not to three Cornell University academics -- Alan Giambattista, Betty Richardson and her husband, Robert. They pose the questions in their recently published textbook, College Physics (McGraw Hill, 2004). Their intent is to draw readers into the text and to help explain difficult physics concepts for pre-med students and others not planning to further their education in the subject.

The three authors each spent anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week for eight years on the creation of the text. "In other words," says Betty Richardson, "every minute of free time was spent on the book project." The text is now in use on the Cornell campus in Physics 102.

Betty Richardson, a senior lecturer who began teaching physics at Cornell in 1977, notes the importance of attracting the reader's interest when writing a textbook: "If the text does not appeal to the students, we might as well not have written it." Co-author Giambattista, also a senior lecturer in the Department of Physics who has taught at Cornell since 1989, agrees. "But if it's not thorough and well-presented," notes Giambattista, "it won't do [the students] any good to read it."

While all three authors agree on the importance of comprehensiveness and presentation when writing a college textbook, they also acknowledge that appeal through illustrations and contemporary references play a major role. Each chapter of College Physics begins with a situation or question to interest the reader, followed by material that is carefully organized and aesthetically pleasing, often with colorful graphics and photographs. Explanations avoid specialized jargon wherever possible, and throughout the text simple experiments are suggested, under the heading "Physics at Home," to apply concepts to real-life situations.

The authors' collaboration began in 1995, when Giambattista invited Betty Richardson to join him in writing a text for students. Their goal, she noted, was "to have a text that a student can read, understand and relate to without having to rely on a lecture to explain the information the textbook author was trying to convey."

In time, Richardson's Nobel laureate husband, Robert, the F.R. Newman Professor of Physics and Cornell's vice provost for research, joined the duo to help write the text. Robert Richardson, who came to Cornell as a research associate in October 1966, has even begun developing a CD-ROM to accompany future editions of the text.

The text underwent three major versions: a Þrst draft that, according to Robert Richardson, "was too long by at least one-third"; a second draft; and a "Þnal" manuscript that also went through numerous revisions. For scholars so immersed in the Þeld of physics, the authors faced the difÞculty of deciding what material to leave in the text and what to take out as they approached their Þnal deadline. "This textbook is not for students intending to pursue further study in physics," says Giambattista, who acknowledges that his audience is composed of mostly pre-med or biology majors. "Therefore, we put a lot of effort into showing how the principles of physics are applied to biological systems, medical technology, et cetera."

To ensure the text was appropriately focused, the authors tested it in classrooms while it was being written, allowing them to receive feedback on what could be improved or changed before the textbook's publishing deadline.

The authors also sought, says Betty Richardson, to "have the material progress in an orderly fashion so that there was always motivation to understand each topic and to serve as a foundation for the next section of material." To achieve this, the traditional order of topics was rearranged somewhat -- for example, by placing Newton's laws of motion before kinematics (the branch of mechanics that deals with motion). The move, says Betty Richardson, has received "favorable responses from other physics professors."

Overall, Giambattista, Richardson and Richardson have written a text from which students not only can learn, but also can enjoy reading. "The biggest complaint," says Robert Richardson, "might be that the book is too heavy."

This release was prepared by Briana Collins '03, a Cornell News Service science-writer intern.

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