● Incomplete Translations: Can You
Help?
● How to Translate the Text
● A Short LaTeX Introduction
You are always welcome to add a translation. I will support you. (Here is why.) Your name will be on all title pages. For a full volume, you will be listed as Gold Sponsor.
Many readers want translations. If you want to help in translating parts of the text into your language, read about details on how to do it below and then let me know. You will have many readers. Because our non-profit has no funds to pay for translations in advance, we will organize royalties for the translator in each paper book sale. (But the amounts will be low.)
Translating is fun. A chapter or two are completely sufficient and are very welcome! You do not need to translate a whole volume. And you will learn about physics while doing so. In exchange, I will explain everything that is unclear. But translation is also work - even if Google Translate is used as helping tool. If you have the time for translating, please get in touch. In exchange, I will help you and motivate you wherever I can.
You will get recognition. Your name will be (since 2017) on the external title page (if you translated the whole volume) and on the internal title pages of the text, and of course I will thank you in the text and on the website for your help. And if you have suggestions for improvement, I will do what I can to add them into the English text.
Available Translations
- Free, up-to-date Vietnamese translations of all five volumes on mechanics & heat, on relativity and cosmology, on electromagnetism and light, on quantum theory, and on materials and particles are available, due to the admirable effort of Cao Sĩ Sơn.
- Free Serbian (similar to Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin) translations, in the Latin alphabet, of all six volumes are now available, due to the admirable translation by Dragoš Vulović.
- Free Arabic translations of the first volume on classical physics, of the second volume on relativity, of the third volume on light and electricity, of the fourth volume on quantum mechanics, and of the fifth volume on motion inside matter are available, admirably translated by Ahmad Bassel Radwan.
- Free Spanish translations of classical physics, relativity and quantum theory are available, admirably translated by Jerónimo Hurtado Pérez, Enrique Ynfante Milá and José Manuel López López.
- A free Japanese translation of the volume on relativity and cosmology is available, admirably translated by Hirooka Megumi.
- Free French translations of the three volumes on mechanics & heat, on relativity and cosmology, and on electromagnetism are available – as free pdf or as affordable paper edition – due to the admirable effort of Benoît Clénet.
- Free Italian translations of the first four volumes are available, due to the admirable efforts of Salvatore Spampinato, Emanuela Rosa Passerini and Alessandro Gori.
Incomplete Translations: Can You Help?
Some translations have been started, but were not finished - for various reasons. Do you want to help? I will support you.
Russian: A translation has been started by Vladimir Romanov here. Do you want to continue or improve it? I will help you.
Portuguese: Here is the .tex file of the start of volume 1. Can you finish it?
Polish: Here is the .tex file of the start of volume 1. Can you finish it?
Japanese: Can you help finishing volume 1? I will send you the tex file. The unfinished pdf is available on the Japanese page.
German: Can you translate a volume?
French: Can you continue with an additional volume?
How to Translate the Text
To keep the text free for all and of high quality at the same time, a translation requires that you agree to the following conditions and procedure (made simpler in 2019):
- 1. You transfer the copyright of the translated text fully to me, Christoph Schiller. In particular, you are not allowed to make money either with the translated or with the original text without my consent. Please also let me know which chapter or volume you want to translate first.
- 2. I send you the original English-language text (.tex) file, and, if you want, the English-language .eps figure files of the text. There is a google drive directory with all figures. You agree NOT to distribute these source files to anybody else.
- 3. Option a: You type your translation in a simple text file similar to the one of the English original. (The text file, with a .tex ending, is used as input for the TeX/LaTeX typesetting system that produces the final pdf. LaTeX is not a WYSIWYG system; typing the text and typesetting it into a pdf are two different steps.) You best type the translation with your favourite editor, such as (on PCs) Ultraedit, Emacs, Alpha, (or, on Unix) Emacs (or, on Macs) Aquamacs, Alpha or any other editor with a TeX/LaTeX mode. You do NOT need to be able to understand or use TeX/LaTeX. You just need to know two things about text (.tex) files: everything after a `%' is a comment, and LaTeX commands start with a backslash, such as \index{This text goes into the index} or \chapter{This is a chapter title}. Simply keep the LaTeX commands you see also in the translated the ascii file. Text inside pure index commands, such as \index{...}, should only be translated if you really want an index in your language.
- 3. Option b: Feel free to use a translation program – but do correct the text afterwards. Most translation programs are bad at translating scientific English.
- 3. Option c: If you prefer, use Word or some other WYSISYG system.
- 3. Option d: Passionate translators can also translate the eps files of the figures. I can give you access to the directory with the eps files.
- 3. Option e: The most passionate translators can also translate the index.
- 4. You send me the translated files (ascii, word, eps), so that I can produce a pdf using LaTeX and check the pdf. You do not need to be able to produce the pdf with LaTeX yourself. In LaTeX, I will use the free MinionPro package, and the *commercial* MinionPro *math* fonts of Johannes Kuester at http://www.typoma.de/en/fonts.html. (It is much better at mathematics than the free MinionPro package - though the latter can also be used.) Do not try to typeset the book yourself if you cannot handle LaTeX, MinionPro and the math fonts. This is difficult - only a few people world-wide managed to do it so far.
- 5. I send you the resulting pdf file, you look at it and decide whether it is good enough. If not, we do another loop. Some translations needed a few loops, others more than 50. We will do as you prefer.
- 6. I will try to ask a professional editor to correct it - if our non-profit can afford him/her. Unfortunately, donations are so low that this is not the case since 2016.
- 7. The final pdf will go on the website, and if I have time, also on scribd. This will allow online reading.
- 8. More recognition: I will do everything so that the result will be beautiful and ensure that you will be proud of your translation. On the website, I will add your name among the sponsors of the textbook. Remind me and I will send you a paper copy of the original and of the translated books. You are welcome to put copies of the translated pdf on your own site. (But not the ascii or eps source files.)
- 9. Advertizing: I will tell about your translation on the internet and send you the download statistics whenever you want. Hundreds of people wrote me asking or begging for a translation. Your translation will be a success - guaranteed!
- 10. Paper edition: If you want, we put a paper edition on Amazon. You will receive 50% of the royalties.
A Short LaTeX Introduction
If you work with the latex files, ending in .tex, here are some hints for reading them:
- All files are pure text files in UTF-8 encoding.
- Everything on a line after a "%" is a comment and is not printed.
- The sign "$" starts and ends an inline mathematical formula.
- The sign "&" separates columns in tables.
- All commands start with a " \ " and the command name itself is not printed. Many are self-explaining. Here are a few heavily used ones:
- The command \section{title} produces a section title.
- The command \subsection{title} produces a subsection title.
- The commands \begin{quote}text\end{quote} produces a section quote.
- \cite{refr} produces a green reference mark in the page border.
- \challenge{label} produces a green challenge mark in the page border.
- \caption{text} produces a caption in a table (or a figure).
- \comment{long text with many paragraphs} hides the long text - it has the same effect as many "%" on the left of each line
- \csd{10}{kg} produces nicely typeset measurement results.
- \csepsf{filename}{scale=1}{Figure caption.} produces a figure with caption. The same holds for \cssmallepsf, \csepsfnb and similar commands.
- \label{letters} defines a label for later page referencing; it prints nothing.
- \figureref{filename}, \tableref{name}, \seepage{label} produce references.
- \emph{text} and \textit{text} produces italic text.
- \footnote{text} produces a footnote.
- \index{word} puts a word into the subject index, \iname{word} puts it into the name index.
- \ii{word} puts a word into the text AND into the index.
- \ii[wordi]{word} puts "word" into the text AND "wordi" into the index. So do \iinn[wordi]{word}, \iinnq[wordi]{word} and \iinns[wordi]{word}
- \item produces a new item in a list.
- \par \linebreak, \break, \\ all start a new line.
- \noindent and \np take out the paragraph indentation.
For more ideas on LaTeX, see here.