HPS Philosophy track student Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez has just published his first book: Física Paso a Paso, a digital textbook in Spanish on the foundations of physics. This has been a labor for the last few years, and fills a much needed gap in the educational market for Latin American high school and college students.
Física Paso a Paso is a digital textbook published by Ediciones Uniandes that aims to help students transitioning from high school to college improve their foundations in physics before moving into more advanced courses. It accomplishes this task by providing step by step solutions to over a hundred problems and utilizing considerably more illustrations and visual aids than other textbooks on the market today. The topics covered are vectors, kinematics, projectiles, forces, and energy.
The textbook does not assume that the student has already acquired a solid background in math or physics but instead seeks to help beginners in clear yet dynamic ways. It could be utilized in introductory physics courses as either a primary text or as a suggested reading for those students who need to improve their foundations and also their skills at solving physics problems.
Besides the fact that there are no other comparable Spanish physics textbooks that solve problems at the level of detail found in this publication, the book is also innovative in that it incorporates elements of Latin American life through references to sporting figures and Colombian popular culture. Also, in contrast to most physics textbooks in the market, the book actively works to reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Latin America, and it is more affordable than traditional textbooks (which are usually Spanish translations of American books). For these reasons, Física Paso a Paso will be especially appealing to latino/a students, and Hispanic students more generally.
You can find out more about the book on Murgueitio Ramirez's website.