Textbook Units
What is the right logical unit for a textbook?
Most textbooks are divided into chapters, many of which can take several class periods to cover.
Other textbooks are divided into lectures, each of which can be covered in a single class period, anywhere from 50 to 110 minutes.
A textbook could also be divided into micro-lectures or a series of connected blog posts. This is an idea I’ve kicked around, but haven’t figured out yet.
Any way, chapters can be too imposing while micro-lectures may require too much prior knowledge of the subject. I believe lectures are the sweet spot for the logical units of a textbook.
An example of the lecture textbook format is Numerical Linear Algebra by Trefethen and Bau.
This book is very good and to the point, covering many topics relevant to structural analysis, such as:
Lecture 1 - Matrix-Vector Multiplication
Lecture 2 - Orthogonal Vectors and Matrices
Lecture 3 - Norms
Lecture 12 - Conditioning and Condition Numbers
Lecture 13 - Floating Point Arithmetic
Lecture 20 - Gaussian Elimination
Lecture 21 - Pivoting
Lecture 22 - Stability of Gaussian Elimination
Lecture 24 - Eigenvalue Problems
Lecture 27 - Rayleigh Quotient
Lecture 32 - Overview of Iterative Methods (for solving Ax=b)
A 25th anniversary edition of the book was published in 2022. Anniversary editions are usually reserved for great albums like OK Computer, so you know the book is worth reading!
Do the units have to be the same size?