Fast Track

to
The Student’s
Web
The Choicest Online Learning Places

By Team Digit
Credits
The People Behind This Book

EDITORIAL
Deepak Ajwani Editor
Ram Mohan Rao Writer, Copy Editor
Robert Sovereign-Smith Copy Editor
Nimish Chandiramani Writer
Abey John Writer
Srikanth R Writer
Samir Makwana Writer

DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Shivshankar Pillai, Vijay Padaya Layout Designers
Sivalal S Layout and Cover Design
Harsho Mohan Chattoraj Illustrator

© Jasubhai Digital Media

Published by Maulik Jasubhai on behalf of Jasubhai Digital Media. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2007
Free with Digit. Not to be sold separately. If you have paid separately for this book, please
e-mail the editor at [email protected] along with details of location of purchase, for
appropriate action.
 Introduction

Back To School
I f you've been reading Digit, you'll have seen that we place a lot of
emphasis on fun with computers, and fun on the Internet. Yes,
the Internet is certainly a fun place. But all play and no work is not
good, hence this Fast Track, which reviews and points you to a large
number of educational sites on the Web.
It's a little sad, really, how few of us use the Net for educating our-
selves. (This applies to everyone, not just students.) "Infotainment" is
what they call it, but we usually skip the "info" part of it.
There are several reasons we decided upon this unconventional
Fast Track. First, it is, like we said, to bring to your attention the sim-
ple fact that the Web can educate. Second, we have tried to point stu-
dents—from eighth-standard kids right to those in engineering col-
leges, for example—to useful sites that can complement their text-
book reading. And perhaps most important, we're trying to encour-
age school students to go beyond what their textbooks tell them, and
develop a broader perspective on the world. Yes, education is all
about increasing your awareness: it doesn't really matter that the
GDP of Great Britain was so many dollars in 2002. But when you're
exposed to such information—which you'll doubtless forget after a
few years—it's your awareness of the world, in a holistic way, that
increases.
On a different note, can't you Google and find the information
yourselves? You can. But to find the best sites would take quite a bit
of time, and we're saving you that labour. Since we've also reviewed
the sites we present, you can choose what site you want to spend time
on, so you don't end up wasting time on sites that don't really matter.
Some sites we present are strictly functional—they can help you
with your exams. Some are broader, and should be given a look in the
interest of developing a holistic perspective on things, like we said.
Go ahead, explore what the Web has to offer in terms of free edu-
cation. And don't forget to write in if you manage to impress your
teachers!
 CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Physics 9
1.1 Introduction 10
1.2 Glenbrook South Physics Home Page 11
1.3 M Casco Associates Physics 1 Online Course 14
1.4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Physics OpenCourseware 16
1.5 Light and Matter 19
1.6 University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Elementary College Physics 21
1.7 Learning Aids-Applets and Animations 23
1.8 Discussion Forums And Newsgroups 30
1.9 Eric Weisstein's World Of Physics 32
1.10 Intute Physics Gateway 34
1.11 Miscellaneous Sources 36

Chapter 2 Chemistry 39

Chapter 3 Biology 59
3.1 Lessons Online 60
3.2 General Interest And Interactive 63

Chapter 4 History 71
4.1 Classic Encyclopedia 72
4.2 Sparknotes 74
4.3 The Encyclopedia of World History 75
4.4 The History Guide 77
4.5 Spartacus Educational 78
4.6 World Civilizations 79
4.7 Kamat's Potpourri 82
4.8 Indian History 84
4.9 South Asian History 85
4.10 Boloji.com: History 87

Chapter 5 Geography And Civics 89

5.1 Geography 90
5.2 Civics 100

Chapter 6 Mathematics 105

6.1 Algebra Review in Ten Lessons 106

6 FAST TRACK
6.2 Webmath.com 108
6.3 The Math Forum @ Drexel 110
6.4 Dave's Short Trig Course 112
6.5 Homepage of e-Calculus 113
6.6 EqWorld 114
6.7 Euclid's Elements 115
6.8 HMC Mathematics Online Tutorial 116
6.9 Algorithms And Complexity 118
6.10 Online Mathematics Textbooks 118
6.11 Wolfram MathWorld 119

Chapter 7 Engineering 123

7.1 Engineering-The Wikipedia Entries 124
7.2 Massachusetts Institute of
Technology | OpenCourseWare 125
7.3 OpenCourseWare Finder 126
7.4 Engineering Formulas 127
7.5 Applied Mechanics (Engineering Mechanics) 128
7.6 Design Handbook 129
7.7 Basics of Computer Programming 129
7.8 Mechanical Engineering 131
7.9 Electronics Engineering 132
7.10 Computer Organization / Architecture 134
7.11 Free Online Training Courses 134
7.12 Electrical Engineering 137
7.13 Computer Engineering 138

Chapter 8 Commerce 141

8.1 Accountancy 142
8.2 Taxation 147
8.3 Economics 151
8.4 Statistics 155
8.5 Business Organisation 159

Chapter 9 Arts 163

9.1 Sociology 164
9.2 Psychology 169
9.3 Political Science 175
9.4 Anthropology 181
9.5 Literature 185

Notes 189

FAST TRACK 7
Physics

P hysics is a challenging subject, probably next only to maths.

Exams are typically at least 50 per cent problem-oriented, and a
student needs all the help he can get with the concepts required to
solve them—and sometimes, a textbook is not enough. Presented
here are sites that increase your understanding of physics, whether
for your exam preparation or for the sake of interest.
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

1.1 Introduction

Education should be free—as in unshackled. Free from classrooms

and time tables and syllabi. Any person eager to get educated
should have convenient access to the relevant information.
Education cannot be free—as in free of charge—since even if the
information is freely available, there is a cost incurred in distrib-
uting information, either through teachers or through textbooks.
But, it can be made dirt cheap or practically free by reducing the
cost incurred in its distribution. An opportunity is presented by
the Internet to achieve truly, dually free education. The Net offers
significantly cheaper storage and distribution channels making it
possible to offer information, almost free of charge—since the Net
access charges still remain. And the always open nature of the
Internet means people can access the information at their con-
venience—time and place become immaterial.

It is rather unfortunate that a country like India with a large

illiterate population has not yet exploited the power of the Web
to make education easily accessible. None of the sites reviewed
here have an Indian connection. Of course, you could freely down-
load the CBSE textbooks from www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/
index.htm, but merely offering downloads of textbooks would be
overlooking the power of the Internet to be a great medium for
interactive learning. Additionally, with most of the studying pop-
ulation following state syllabi, this act by NCERT, meagre as it
already is, loses even that significance. Nevertheless, it is a step in
the right direction, and something all state education boards
ought to emulate.

Thanks to the universal nature of science as a field of study, it

doesn’t matter that the sites reviewed here have no Indian con-
nection. The laws of Newton are the same across the world, as are
the equations to calculate different physical entities. So while the
presentation and choice of chapters may vary, the content retains
its relevance.

10 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

The sites available on the Net can be classified into two types:
ones that offer straight and simple information in a style similar
to that seen in textbooks, and the ones that offer learning aids
that enhance the ability to grasp the crux of a concept, either as
animations or as review questions or quizzes. General sites like
www.howstuffworks.com which offer excellent, multimedia-
enriched information are not covered here since they do not offer
a cohesive and comprehensive look at a subject. But they are still
excellent reference sites where detailed explanations can be
sought in case other sites are unable to satisfactorily demystify a
concept to the student.

Since almost every site reviewed here extensively uses non tex-
tual content it is important that the browser be up to the job. To
view flash animations, Java applets, QuickTime movies, etc., you
need the relevant browser plugins. The links to the appropriate
download locations are also provided on the sites, which can be
used to update the browser. Besides plugins, it would also be nec-
essary, sometimes, to turn down the trash filtering capabilities of
the browser to fully enjoy what the site has to offer. Ad blocking
applications can block animated content or prevent them from
repeating the cycle, and disable JavaScript-created effects.

1.2 Glenbrook South Physics Home Page

(www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/phys.html)

An excellent site for all physics students, this is a creation of the

physics tutors at Glenbrook South High School. This site offers all
the tools that make the study of physics interesting to students.
Besides the section offering plain lessons enhanced with pictures
and animations, there is a section on questionnaires to test a stu-
dent’s knowledge, a multimedia section containing movies on
experiments in physics, and a section on projects done by the stu-
dents of the school.

FAST TRACK 11
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Glenbrook High Physics

The “Physics Classroom” link takes you to the actual course-

ware. The topics covered include Kinematics, Newton’s Laws,
Vectors—Motion and Forces in Two Dimensions, Momentum and
its Conservation, Work, Energy and Power, Circular Motion and
Satellite Motion, Waves, Sound Waves and Music, Light Waves and
Color, Reflection and Ray Model of Light, Refraction, and the Ray
Model of Light. The coverage is somewhat limited in range, but
that deficiency is more than made up by depth.

Every chapter is further divided into sections which are spread

across many pages, making it easier to digest the content. There is
an abundance of images, animations and examples to make the
explanation more vivid. Every concept is followed by a quick
review and also a small case study applying the concept to situa-
tions in real life. There are small quizzes following every subsec-
tion, under the “Check Your Understanding” title to test a stu-
dent’s grasp of a concept.

The “Multimedia Physics Studio” allows access to learning

aids on the site. Here, too, the data is categorised as chapters
similar to the courseware. Each chapter is further divided into
sections containing the animation and the text explaining the
concept as well as its application in the animation. Besides sim-
ple animations, there are longer animations in QuickTime for-
mat. These are considerably fewer in comparison. Another sec-

12 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

tion, the “Shockwave Physics Studio” contains even more ani-

mations in Flash format. These animations allow the student to
interact with them by changing the parameters and watch the
difference in the animation. A few of the links on the page are
not yet functional.

The site offers many forms of quizzes and questionnaires to

test a student’s knowledge. Under the “Minds on Physics Internet
Modules,” a student is offered multiple-choice questions on all top-
ics covered in the courseware. Before being able to use the tests,
one needs to sign up as a Guest. This information is used to track
the results of a student’s attempts. The “Review Session” link also
offers multiple choice questions, as does the “Quiz Room” link.
Those students who would like to apply the knowledge they
gained from the site can visit the “Refrigerator” link, where the
notable projects undertaken by the school’s students are men-
tioned. The students offer an account of the project along with the
procedure followed, observations made and conclusions drawn.
The “Projects Corner” link offers similar content but contains proj-
ect ideas, as well as marking pattern, as presented by the tutors.
Nevertheless, students can use the procedure on executing an
experiment, described there.

The absence of ads makes browsing through the site a pleasant

experience. The navigation is simple, font sizes are conveniently
large, and the images and animations are not too heavy to signifi-
cantly increase load times. All these make the site one of the best
targets for downloading en masse with a Web site extractor for con-
venient browsing offline.

As a side note, the site offers a glimpse of educational tech-

niques employed in a developed country. By accumulating all rel-
evant resources—information, learning aids, quizzes and lab
experiment ideas—for students and teachers at one place, the site
acts as the single tool for all students to have, making the need for
every student to have individual textbooks and other reference
material redundant.

FAST TRACK 13
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

1.3 M Casco Associates Physics 1

Online Course

M Casco Physics

(www.mcanv.com/index.html)
This site is the creation of M Casco Associates, a firm dealing with
educational tools for mathematics and physics. The content has been
created by J D Jones, a co-founder of the firm, who is not a teacher
per se, but has spent some time teaching. The language on the site is
not pedantic as seen in textbooks, which immensely adds to the
enjoyment of learning—while reading, one could easily imagine
being in the presence of the author and listening to him speak.
Thanks to the long years he has spent applying and teaching con-
cepts of physics, the interesting insights he offers about the subject
and its relevance are quite valuable. Unfortunately, Jones restricts
the discourse to only the field of mechanics.

The Physics 1 Online course can be accessed from the link on

the right side bar. Topics covered on the site are Measurement in
Mechanics, Rate of Change, Motion in One Dimension, Constant
Acceleration in One Dimension, Vector Arithmetic, Motion in
Two Dimensions, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Applying Newton’s
Laws of Motion, Circular Motion, Work and Kinetic Energy,
Potential Energy and Fields, Systems of Many Particles, Linear
Momentum and Collisions, Rotation, Rotational Dynamics,
Equilibrium and Elasticity, Vibration, Gravity, Fluid Mechanics,
and Mechanical Waves.

14 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

There are a lot of images, charts and graphs alongside the text
to make comprehension of concepts easier. The author has identi-
fied concepts which could be difficult for a student to grasp and
these are prominently marked. All the charts displayed on the site
are screenshots of applets which can be accessed through the links
alongside. The applets can be modified based on user’s values and
this interactivity enhances the teaching capabilities of the site.
Every applet is accompanied by a description on how to use it and
what the results mean. The definitions of the terms used in the
site are compiled under a Glossary for easier access. Students can
directly contact the author with their doubts, and he restricts this
service to those students who register on the site. Registration is
free and easy.

Besides the Physics 1 Online course, another source of infor-

mation is the Answers link available at the home page. This
leads one to the questions already sent by students, and the
answers to them as provided by the author of the site. The ques-
tions are not limited to mechanics and cover the entire range of
studies under physics.

A few drawbacks of this site include the author’s occasional

tendency to refer to the products of the firm and its capabilities.
The author uses no-nonsense learning aids like line diagrams and
doesn’t use colourful animations, though there are colourful pic-
tures used occasionally. This can be explained by the fact that the
firm’s products are Java-coded learning aids based on the same
lines. The description on how to use the applet can sometimes get
too complicated to take away the eagerness of using it and learn-
ing from it. There is a distinct bias towards the use of quantitative
techniques to put across a point, as seen in use of the applets. The
chapters are not broken down into manageable chunks; rather, a
chapter is allocated one page, no matter how long. And there are
no quizzes or questionnaires for a student to test newly-acquired
knowledge. All this leads one to believe that the intended audi-
ence is not the average school student, rather someone who just
seeks knowledge.

FAST TRACK 15
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

In conclusion, this site is best used by students who are not

keen on following the beaten track of most school curriculum
based Web sites. The conversational style of presentation and
focus on numerical data as learning tools would appeal to the
engineer at heart.

1.4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Department of Physics OpenCourseware

(http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/index.htm)

OpenCourseware, as is evident, refers to “free and open digital

publication of high quality educational materials, organized as
courses” (www.ocwconsortium.org/about/index.shtml). The
OpenCourseware Consortium is a group of institutions heading
this movement. And MIT is one of them. As a part of its contribu-
tion to the cause, MIT offers its educational material free in digi-
tal format. Physics is just one of the subjects available here; almost

OCW at MIT

the entire gamut of subjects offered at any University is available

for free on this site (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm). With
a reputation to uphold, the content on the site can be expected to
be top-notch.

Physics courses targeted at graduates and undergraduates are

offered here, with the topics arranged under relevant topics. The
undergraduate graduate course includes topics such as Classical

16 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Vibrations and Waves,

Relativity, Quantum Physics, Statistical Physics,
Electromagnetism, Special Relativity, General Relativity &
Astrophysics, Physics of Solids, String Theory for Undergraduates,
Introduction to Computational Neuroscience, Introduction to
Astronomy, Modern Astrophysics, and Particle Physics.

Under the Graduate level the following topics are covered:

Electromagnetic Theory, Quantum Theory Relativistic Quantum
Field Theory Statistical Mechanics of Particles, Statistical
Mechanics of Fields, Classical Mechanics: A Computational
Approach, Quantum Information Science, Atomic and Optical
Physics Theory of Solids Many-Body Theory for Condensed Matter
Systems, Strongly Correlated Systems in Condensed Matter Physics,
Statistical Thermodynamics of Complex Liquids, Systems Biology,
Statistical Physics in Biology, Introduction to Neural Networks,
Introduction To Plasma Physics Introduction to Nuclear and
Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Cosmology, and General Relativity.

Unlike other sites, this one doesn’t offer any standard educa-
tional content in the form of text, images, etc., broken down into
chapters. The nature of the information includes lecture notes,
pictures of blackboards taken when being used by professors, pres-
entation slides, assignments with solutions, exams with solutions,
video recording of lectures, etc. And all these, except the video
recordings, are offered in downloadable format. The download-
able content is displayed on the right sidebar of every topic page.
The lecture notes are mostly in PDF format, while the video
recordings are in Real Media format. The entire basket of educa-
tional material is available for download in the ZIP format. Every
compressed archive contains the online course Web pages and all
content except video recordings. These are in streaming video for-
mat and can be accessed through the links provided. It is not nec-
essary to download the course content en masse, since individual
links to each category of content—lecture notes, assignments.
quizzes etc —are also provided, and can be used to download rele-
vant content only.

FAST TRACK 17
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The available content types varies from topic to topic, since

as admitted by MIT, “Each MIT OCW course Web site is devel-
oped individually with the participating faculty and instructors.
MIT faculty and instructors publish only as much content as
they are comfortable having on a Web site that is freely accessi-
ble worldwide.” (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/OCWHelp/
help.htm#18). So, some faculty members may only offer a read-
ing list and a set of questionnaires; while someone like Professor
Levin offers the whole nine yards including the complete video
recording of the lectures. Professor Levin’s topics are Newtonian
Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Vibration and Waves
for the undergraduate course. Since the recordings are in Real
Media Streaming format, you need to be online to view the
stream. Alternatively, you can follow the steps mentioned at
http://federermagic. blogspot.com/2005/06/how-to-save-stream-
ing-videos.html to save the recordings for offline viewing.
Expect file sizes to be large!

The bulk of the content offered at the site is at best an acces-

sory to enhance one’s understanding of the subject. A student
would still need access to a standard source of information, like
a textbook or another online site offering educational content,
to really exploit the content offered by MIT. Only the video
recordings stand as a wholesome educational avenue. The rest,
like lecture notes and slides, are small pieces of a puzzle that
would be of no use unless the corresponding course content is
also available to the student. Similarly the quizzes and ques-
tionnaires are also of no use to a student who does not yet have
the relevant knowledge.

In conclusion, MIT’s OCW initiative holds a lot of promise and

can prove to be a viable alternative to usual educational channels
if it could also incorporate standard educational content present-
ly seen in reference books or offer video recordings of all topics.
Nevertheless, this initiative offers an excellent opportunity to stu-
dents worldwide to gain from the expertise of the best that the
teaching world has to offer.

18 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

1.5 Light and Matter

(www.lightandmatter.com/index.html)
This site is the creation of Benjamin Crowell, a physics and astron-
omy Teacher at Fullerton College in California. On offer at this site
are freely downloadable textbooks under the titles Newtonian
Physics, Conservation Laws, Vibration and Waves, Electricity and
Magnetism, Optics, and The Modern Revolution in Physics. These
books form the Light and Matter series of introductory physics,
and are intended for students undertaking a one-year course. They

The light and matter series

totally constitute about 800 pages of content. The author also

offers lighter, modified versions targeted at other audiences. The
book titled Discover Physics offers reduced mathematical focus, the
book titled Conceptual Physics is an abridged version and targeted at
students adopting a shorter course, and the book titled Simple
Nature is for engineers and physical scientists.

All the books are available for download in PDF format, and to
reduce the download size where necessary, the downloads are
split into sets of 50 pages. The book has gained acceptance in a few
educational institutions who have included it in their curriculum,
and this can be seen as a sign of its quality.

Those not keen on downloading the books can access the same
content as offered in the Light and Matter series on the Web site
of the Virtual Institute of Applied Science (www.vias.org/
about.html). This institute is dedicated to offering inexpensive,
high-quality learning material and offers content on other sub-

FAST TRACK 19
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

jects besides Physics. Crowell’s textbooks are offered verbatim

under the title Lectures in Physics (www.vias.org/physics/). Besides
the online version, the site also offers the course as a download-
able e-book.

Content-wise, the textbooks are loaded with images and dia-

grams. There are frequent discussion questions and self-tests to
check a student’s comprehension of the topic. Every chapter ends
with a set of queries for homework, which is expected of any
school text book. A few minor differences exist between the ver-
sions, and this is probably because the Web site has not been

Lectures in Physics at vias.org

updated with the details of the latest revision in the textbook.

These differences, though, seem very few and minor. For example,
the image of the boat in section 1.2 in the text book is absent on
the Web page, but the text is the same.

Since the PDF format files are meant for printing, for a student
planning to read the content on the screen the downloadable e-
book would be preferred, due to the reduced scrolling required.
The ability to quickly access a section of the book through a link
also weighs in favour of the online version, though this advantage
has not been exploited optimally as seen in the non hyperlinked
answers to questions. The link to move to the next page is available
only on the top banner of the page, making it necessary to scroll
up after reading through a topic.

20 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

In conclusion, Crowell’s act of making the textbooks free is

worthy of emulation by every institution aiming to spread educa-
tion. The adoption of the textbooks by other institutions vouches
for their excellent quality. While the author intended the text-
books to be printed, and offered a file format that was compatible

Elementary college physics at UNCW

for this; it is rather unfortunate that VIAS blindly imported the
content to offer it online without modifying it to fully exploit the
advantages of the Net. Including links to quickly access the
answers to questionnaires would have significantly improved a
student’s experience. Nevertheless, it remains a worthy contribu-
tion to the cause of free education.

1.6 University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Elementary College Physics

(http://people.uncw.edu/hermanr/phy101/index.htm)

This Web site is the brainchild of Dr Russel Herman. Rather than

offer textual data and create content on his own, Dr Herman
avoids the labour of reinventing the wheel by offering links to
other locations on the Web that have the content that comprises
the chapters of the course. Besides offering the links which most-
ly contain textual data, he also offers the entire video/audio
recording of all his lectures on the subject.

FAST TRACK 21
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The “Course Materials” link on the page takes one to the page
offering links organised chapter-wise. Here one can see that there
are 17 chapters in the course. Under the chapter link one can access
the sites that offer information about the topic. The links span an
entire range of Web sites, though most are other educational insti-
tutions. The eclectic nature of the selection ensures that a student
gets the best information as judged by Dr Herman, available on the
Net. This approach frees the student from being restricted to a sin-
gle source of information. The drawback is the loss of continuity
since a student is expected to visit different sites to complete a
topic. Besides educational material, there are quizzes also offered
on the same page under the “Sample Quizzes/Exams” link.

For even more content, students also visit the “Text Website”
link which takes one to the companion Web site of the book
“Physics, Sixth Edition by John D. Cutnell and Kenneth W.
Johnson”, published by Wiley. The Web site offers a lot of addition-
al learning tools and is supposed to augment the content in the
textbook. The “Concept Simulation Link” takes a student to a host
of Java applets and Flash animations which can be used to experi-
ment with the various concepts. The applets are arranged chapter-
wise, and each is accompanied by a textual description on how to
use it, besides an audio introduction offering a background for the
applet’s purpose. In case of animations, a commentary accompa-
nies the animation explaining the related concept and walking a
student through the different steps. The Self Assessment Tests link
and Practice MCAT Quizzes link offer an avenue for the student to
test his knowledge. The content on the site is accessible either
chapter-wise or category-wise from the menu in the right sidebar.

It is actually easy to see that the 17 chapters on Dr Herman’s

page correspond to the 17 chapters of the Wiley book. Dr Herman
has successfully avoided copyright issues by using content freely
available on the Net to explain the textual matter, and by using
the additional content offered for free by the publisher has man-
aged to offer the best of both worlds.

22 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

Students not too keen to read up on the content can use the
video and audio recording of Dr Herman’s lectures on the subject.
These are accessible from the “Audio/Video Lectures” link on the
main page. The Video Lectures are accessible through a link
offered in the first part of the page. The Video files are in the
WMV, MP4 or RAM formats. For offline viewing, the MP4 format
can be downloaded, while for viewing the lectures as an online
stream, the WMV and RAM links can be used. A couple of the links
of the video recordings are broken. The downloadable video is
available only in 160 x 128 resolution, and the quality is basic.
Besides the video recording, students can also look at the images
of the blackboard as used by Dr Herman. The Audio lectures also
are available in downloadable and online streaming format.
Downloadable files are in MP3 format. The quality of the audio
recordings are not up to the mark, probably because the compres-
sion adversely affected the original quality. But, with some effort,
the message can be comprehended. The accent would, probably, be
the biggest hindrance for most students.

In conclusion, Dr Herman’s approach of delivering a complete

learning experience, by selectively using the available free
resources on the Net, and the free resources offered by a publish-
er who doesn’t offer the textbook for free, and by offering video
and audio recordings of his lectures is an excellent example of
exploiting the power of the Net to make education free. It is an
ingenious idea and a commendable effort.

1.7 Learning Aids—Applets and Animations.

1.7.1 Physics Applets

(http://qbx6.ltu.edu/s_schneider/physlets/main/index.shtml)

This is the contribution of Dr Scott Schneider, associate profes-

sor of physics at Lawrence Technological University. On
this page, Dr Schneider has offered Java Applets that can be
used to better understand various physics concepts. The Java

FAST TRACK 23
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Applets used to describe physics concepts are referred to

as PHYSLETs.

There are over 100 Physlets on the site. Those interested in

using the applets offline can follow the steps mentioned at the
corresponding link on the site. It is recommended to go through
the links under the “Introduction to using Physlets” title to be
able to make the most of this site.

Schneider’s physics applets

Kinematics—One Dimensional Motion, Kinematics—Two/Three

Dimensional Motion, Torques and Countertorques, Rotational
Kinematics and Dynamics, Momentum—explosions/collisions,
Optics, Harmonic Motion, ElectroStatics, DC circuits, and Magnetic
Fields are some of the topics under which Physlets are available.

Some of the applets are not Dr Schneider’s creation, and all

these have been credited to their creators. Needless to say, the
applets by themselves do not have any significant educational val-
ues, since without knowledge of the underlying concepts it would
not be possible to make any fruitful use of the applets nor com-
prehend the results. Unfortunately, only a few applets are accom-
panied by a detailed explanation about the phenomenon shown.
So a student would have to rely on another source of information
to gain the basic knowledge to be able to optimally use the applets
offered on this page. Some of the applets are part of a question-
naire, while the rest are sandbox type applications that allow the
student to change different parameters and observe the changes.

Since applets only work when online, Dr. Schieder has created
an application that allows the applets to be used even when

24 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

offline. This application and its usage instructions can be accessed

from the link on the page. Unfortunately, the application is not
selective and downloads all applets in one go without offering the
user a choice regarding which applets to download. Once down-
loaded, the files are organised in folders. The applets can be
lauched by opening the index.html file in the main folder.

In conclusion, the collection of applets on the site are helpful

if used in conjunction with regular educational material. These
can increase the comprehension of a concept due to the ability to
allow the user to experiment with the parameters. They are a good
example of exploitation of the power of the internet to create a
more lively learning environment.

1.7.2. Flash Animations for Physics

(www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/Flash/
index.html)
This Web site is the creation of David M Harrison, Department of
Physics, University of Toronto. It offers 89 Flash animations as
learning aids. The animations have be categorised topic-wise, and
some of the topics covered include Chaos, Classical Mechanics,
Electricity and Magnetism, Nuclear, Optics, Quantum Mechanics,
Relativity, Sound Waves, Vectors, and Waves.

The author has also offered tips on how to create animations

in Flash, but this requires additional, paid software.

Flash Animations for Physics

FAST TRACK 25
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

These animations are devoid of any explanatory notes, imply-

ing that they are targeted at other educators to be used as demon-
strations in conjunction with relevant reading material.
Nevertheless, students looking for additional material to better
understand a concept will find the animations useful. Most ani-
mations are small in size, ranging from a few KB to a few hundred
KB, with only one exceeding I MB in size. A brief description of the
animation, its size, and the version of the Flash plug-in required to
view the animation accompany each file. Most of the animations
allow the user to change values and observe the changes, while a
few are just for viewing. In any case, they are better at aiding com-
prehension than mere static images that exist on Web pages or in
textbooks.

In conclusion, the lack of detailed explanatory notes takes

away some of the value of this otherwise excellent site.

1.7.3 Maths, Physics and Engineering Applets

(www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html)

This site is the creation of Paul Falstad, who offers little informa-
tion about himself. This self-effacement, though, only magnifies
the utility of his creation. The site offers about 40 Java applets cov-
ering different topics in physics, like Oscillations and Waves,
Acoustics, Signal Processing, Electricity and Magnetism, Statics,
Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, Linear Algebra, Vector
Calculus, and Thermodynamics. Besides applets on these topics,
the site also has links to other sites offering similar content.

A one-line description accompanies the link to the applet. Of

the sites discussed here, this one probably offers the most well-
crafted applets. The applets offer greater changeable parameters
and overall appear sharper. It is easy to see that a physics student
would be spending a lot of time on each applet trying out its dif-
ferent possibilities. Each applet is accompanied by brief instruc-
tions, and if required, even detailed instructions can be accessed

26 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

Flash animations for physics

by the link on the same page. Given the number of changeable

parameters, the detailed instructions are sometimes necessary.
Besides this link, there is a link to download the applet, and a few
applets are also available as source code for download. Unlike
other sites, the applets are not embedded in the page; rather,
almost all of them pop up in a separate window.

One will not find educational material on the site to explain

what the readings or findings of the applet actually mean. For this
a student would have to lean on other sources of information, and
revert to this site for experimentation purposes.

One irritating thing at this site is the presence of ads on many

pages. Besides that, there is no information about the applet sizes,
and one can only wait for the applet window to be launched. But,
these can be easily forgiven given the superiority of the applets’
educational potential.

In conclusion, this site with its excellent applets should be the

first port of call for physics students needing learning tools to
understand physics concepts.

FAST TRACK 27
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

1.7.4 The Applet Collection

(http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/applist/applets.htm)
This is the creation of Dr Wolfgang Bauer, Professor, Department
of Physics, Michigan State University. Like other sites in its genre,
one can find Java applets on this site to aid the comprehension of
physics concepts. There are about 60 applets here under topics like
Kinematics, Dynamics, Rotational Motion, Oscillations, Thermal
Physics, Wave Phenomena, Electrostatics, Electrodynamics, Optics,
Quantum Physics, and Nuclear Physics.

The Applet Collection

A brief online description of the applet accompanies the link.

Clicking on the link takes the student to the applet page where
directions on using the applet controls are also displayed. There
is barely any additional information besides the directions, so
students would not be able to comprehend the results unless
they already have the knowledge about the phenomenon being
demonstrated.

1.7.5 Java Applets on Physics

(www.walter-fendt.de/ph14e/)
This site is the creation of Walter Fendt, a high school maths,
physics, and computer science teacher. The original page is in
German and has been translated into over a dozen languages,
including English, which speaks a lot about its utility. Some laps-
es in the translation process are easily noticeable though.
Besides applets for physics, the author also offers applets in
maths and astronomy.

28 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

Java applets on physics

There are links to 49 applets on this page, and if required, a

student can download all of them for offline use, through the sep-
arate download link. The page and applets are a bit too garishly
coloured, but the learning potential is not hindered in any respect
due to this.

There are applets on the following topics: Mechanics,

Oscillations and Waves, Electrodynamics, Optics, Thermo-
dynamics, Theory of Relativity, Physics of Atoms, and Nuclear
Physics. The range and depth of topics covered by the applets
makes it clear that they are targeted at high school physics stu-
dents. Topics like Ohm’s Law, Wheatstone’s Bridge, Refraction of
light, etc., which form part of a high school curriculum are
explained well with the applets. This would also probably explain
the author’s attempt at using vivid colours everywhere. The
applets are accompanied by brief instructions on usage, and a very
few of them also have a small description of the phenomenon
being demonstrated. The applets are comparatively simple, with
few changeable parameters making it easier for young students to
use the applet without feeing overwhelmed by too many controls.

In conclusion, the applets on offer here are a great opportuni-

ty for students to brush up their lab activities without having to
visit one. The few lapses in translation are the only drawbacks of
the site, though they do not obscure the author’s words.

FAST TRACK 29
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The constant theme that these applets convey is that it is pos-

sible to mimic the real-life environment in a laboratory, with com-
puter animation. Interactive Java applets allow a student to play
around with variables more conveniently and quickly than would
be possible in a laboratory. This enhances the comprehension of
the subject among students. From a teacher’s point of view, the
preclusion of the need to set up all apparatus before an experi-
ment, and spend resources to maintain these apparatus and worry
about damages caused by curious students, is a strong reason to
invest in animations as a replacement for lab experiments. In the
same vein, it needs to be pointed out that these animations are
best used as repetitive learning tools. Even though the conceptual
knowledge can be gained through an applet, the physical experi-
ence of handling instruments is important, and cannot be repli-
cated on a computer.

1.8. Discussion Forums And Newsgroups

Discussion boards / bulletin boards are places where like-minded

people come to share their thoughts, seek assistance, and offer
advice on a subject. These are places where students who require
guidance on any topic related to the subject should head to. Due
to the fact that the other members of the groups also share a pas-
sion for the subject, it is possible to get a sympathetic ear for your
problems, besides knowledgeable advice. For someone who con-
siders himself an expert on the subject, a forum is a great place to
make a mark for oneself by solving problems faced by others.
Besides helping others, a forum is also the place to share knowl-
edge, and keep abreast of new developments across the world.

1.8.1 Physics Forums

(http://physicsforums.com)
This seems by far the most active of forums dedicated to the sub-
ject. Besides physics, the site also caters to a few other related sub-
jects like maths, astronomy and engineering. The forum is well
organised into sections and topics. The various sections include

30 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

The Physics Forums homepage

one dedicated to Homework / Classwork questions where students

can seek answers to queries. There is another section on tutorials,
where one can find links to sites offering eduational tools. Besides
these is the usual forum where people can discuss physics prob-
lems. A link on the top of the site, labelled “Links”, offers access to
other information-laden sites on various subjects. While some of
the links offer free e-books on the subject and cater to the physics
student, there are others that offer research documents for down-
load—like the link to Cornell University Library (arxiv.org) offering
free access to about 4 lakh e-papers on various subjects.

This is a very lively site that seems to be frequented by, based on

the user profiles, all types of physics lovers—students, teachers, physi-
cists, etc. The forum is well-moderated, with questions in the wrong
forum being moved to the proper ones, and unwanted posts deleted
promptly. As is standard practice at most forums, only registered
users are allowed to post or reply on the forum, while anyone can read
through the posts. Unregistered members also do not have access to a
site-wide search tool which would help in finding whether a query
has been previously answered. Unregistered users are only allowed to
search within a thread, which may not be of much practical use.

The site offers paid memberships, which increase the features

of the site available to the user. While a comprehensive feature list

FAST TRACK 31
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

is not available on the site, a few of the benefits of a paid mem-

berships include an e-mail ID and the ability to add a picture to
one’s profile. The core features of the forum remain free. While
there were no visible ads on the site during our visit, the site does
mention that free users are subject to ads. The ad-free look gives
the site a professional touch.

Overall, physicsforums.com is an excellent area for physics lovers

to connect with each other, share knowledge and help one another
with problems. The homework help section is a great place for physics
students to seek assistance with tricky problems that elude solution.

1.8.2 Physicsmathforums
(http://physicsmathforums.com)

Another budding forum catering to this subject is physicsmathfo-

rums.com. Besides physics, this site also covers maths, astronomy,
and philosophy. The members are fewer compared to physicsfo-
rums.com, and the ads are conspicuous. Most of the sections are
similar to that seen in the previous forum, like a section on
homework help. But a few distinctions exist, like dedicated sec-
tions on physics frauds, and physics puzzles and brain-teasers.

1.8.3 Newsgroups
Those looking for more avenues to collaborate with like-minded
physics lovers can try the sci.physics newsgroup. This can be
accessed by going to groups.google.com and entering “sci.physics”
in the search box. Newsgroups are similar to discussion boards,
except for the lack of moderators. The nature of discussion and the
quality of members are usually similar.

1.9 Eric Weisstein’s World Of Physics

(http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/)
Eric Weisstein, the person behind the Mathworld site (math-
world.wolfram.com), which is considered the most popular Web

32 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

site on that subject, is an encyclopaedist who has been gathering

information on various topics since childhood. This site is a sub-
set of Eric Weisstein’s World of Science, which is the result of a
decade of offline and online data collection by the author.
Content on this site has also been contributed by others.

As this is the effort of an encyclopaedist and not an educator,

one should not expect educational material in the standard text-
book format. This is more of a reference site, with “2,700 entries,
14,065 cross-references, 172 figures, 22 animated graphics, 0 live
Java applets, and counting...”

There are a lot of negatives about this site. For one, quite a few
entries are mere placeholders with a link inviting the reader to
contribute content. Unlike Wikipedia, another freely available
enterprise of amateur encyclopaedists, this site doesn’t offer any-
thing beyond the bare definition, in most cases. Very rarely does
an entry receive a description exceeding a few sentences. Of
course, terms in the definition are linked to corresponding entries
within the site, but that mars the visitor’s experience to an extent,
since there will be a lot of page hopping before a concept is eluci-
dated. Some pages list a lot of references which are linked to the

Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics

FAST TRACK 33
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

page in Amazon.com to buy the book. Certain entries that do not

yet have a definition list a lot of references in a similar manner.
And occasionally, one will come across an entry without defini-
tion, that has been linked to another similar definition-less entry.
The prominent display of Wolfram’s products in every page is also
an irritant. There is a dearth of images, and the animations can-
not be easily accessible while browsing through the site. The sole
link to the animations exist on the first page of the site.

The redeeming factor is the presence of a search box which

would be the preferred mode to get to a definition quickly.
Overall, the site comes across as a work in progress, and is not wor-
thy of being tagged along with its more famous counterpart, the
Mathworld site.

1.10 Intute Physics Gateway

(www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/physics/)
Intute, as mentioned on the main page on the Web site, “is a free
online service providing you with access to the very best Web
resources for education and research. The service is created by a net-
work of UK universities and partners. Subject specialists select and
evaluate the Web sites in our database and write high quality
descriptions of the resources. The database contains 115833 records.”

Intute reviews Web sites covering every field of study, besides

physics. The Physics section on the Web site offers resources on
topics such as Acoustics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Electricity
and Magnetism, Fluid Mechanics, General Physics, Heat and
Thermodynamics, Mathematical Physics, Measurement and
Instrumentation, Mechanics, Statics and Dynamics, Nuclear
Physics, Optics and Light, etc. Each of the topic headings is suf-
fixed with the number of links categorised under it. Clicking on
the topic link takes one to the listing of sites. Each site link is
accompanied by a brief description of the site’s contents. The sites
are organised alphabetically. There is no comparative information

34 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

The Intute Physics Gateway

provided about the sites, so it is not possible for a visitor to know
which site is most popular or the largest among those listed.
A search box makes it much easier to identify the relevant Web
sites, but the search is limited to the content of the site descrip-
tion rather than the sites themselves. Intute tries to rectify this sit-
uation by using what it calls a “Harvester,” a software that takes a
sample of pages—which can go up to 100 pages—from each site and
indexes them. It is possible that the terms that do not exist in the
description may occur in the Web sites, and Harvester offers the
opportunity, albeit limited, to improve the chances of finding the
relevant sites.

An alternative way to use the Web site is through the “Subject

Packs,” where Intute has organised the links to suit the educa-
tional requirements of student courses. The subject packs link is
available on the right side bar. Besides physics, subject packs exist
for chemistry and geography. Under the Physics Subject Pack the
following topics are covered: Basic electricity, Capacitors and
capacitance, Circular motion, Fundamental particles, Kinematics,
Radioactivity, Relativity, and Vectors. As can be noticed, the cov-
erage of topics is not as wide as at most sites on the subject. In this
listing, the site description clearly mentions whether the site con-

FAST TRACK 35
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

tains lecture notes, or tutorials or glossaries. Clicking on the URL

takes one to the Web page with the actual content. A summary
look at the sites listed here confirms that they are of excellent
quality.

Intute also has compiled a few interesting bits of information

about science, which can also be accessed from the right side bar.
The Timeline link tracks the important events the occurred across
the years in the many branches of science. The “Science Data” link
offers a Physics Reference Guide containing various formulae for
download, as well as tables of important values and formulae
related to circuits under the “Lessons in Electric Circuits” link.

There is a link to the “Virtual Training Suite” on the right side-

bar. The intention here is to teach the user to find and use Web
resources for education. While its purpose is not readily apparent,
it eventually leads the user to a set of URLs offering information on
the subject. These URLs have already been categorised by Intute,
and are available to the user under each subject page. To start the
Virtual Training Suite tutorial, a user must pick the relevant field
of study, in our case this is “Physicist”. The only benefit of using the
Training Suite is that the user can save links to important infor-
mation laden sites, and e-mail these to himself for later use.

Overall, Intute offers an excellent filtering mechanism which

greatly saves the student the time and effort involved in identify-
ing good-quality information laden sites. It therefore fulfills its
promise of providing access to the best Web resources.

1.11 Miscellaneous Sources

1.11.1 The Companion Website Resource

Major publishers of textbooks charge for the book and offer addi-
tional learning tools for free online. The additional content
includes quizzes, animations, additional Web links etc. The term
“Companion Website” seems to be commonly used to refer to the

36 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
PHYSICS I

The Student Companion Site for Fundamentals of Physics

site offering this content. One will not find any reading material
on this site, so students have to use other sources to gain the min-
imal knowledge about a concept.
A brief description of what to expect at a site has been covered
in section 1.23, where the Wiley.com companion site was dis-
cussed. Other publishers like Prentice Hall also follow in the same
footsteps. While we shall not be reviewing companion sites in this
section, we would like to offer a tip so that these Web sites can be
easily accessed. Those well-versed with Internet search techniques
would have already arrived at the solution, but for the rest, to get
to a Companion Web site, just head to google.com and search for
the title or author of the book along with the terms “companion”
(or “companion site” in case a lot of irrelevant results show up).
For example, if you are looking for the companion site for the book
Fundamentals of Physics by David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Jearl
Walker, in the Google search box, type in “companion Resnick”
(without the quotes) and you should get the link to the relevant
site. Of course, typing in “companion physics” will result in links
to all companion sites of all books on physics by all publishers. A
bit of rummaging would be required in that case.

FAST TRACK 37
 I PHYSICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

1.11.2 Lecture Notes and Textbooks

Many sites offer simple lecture notes and downloadable textbooks:
1. Peter Suranyi, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of
Cincinnati. Lecture Notes on Modern Physics (http://physuna
.phs.uc.edu/suranyi/Modern_physics/Lecture_Notes/lecture_no
tes.html)

2. University of Winnipeg, Distance Education Program. Lecture

notes on Introductory Physics.
(http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/physics/)

3. Three free downloadable books by Professor Frank Firk, Former

Chairman of Dept of Physics, Yale University
(www.physicsforfree.com)

4. World of Physics
(http://library.thinkquest.org/20138/ch_indexSt.html)

5. Kerala State Board Standard X Physics Text book

(www.education.kerala.gov.in/eng_phys.htm)

38 FAST TRACK
Chemistry

C hemistry is a royal pain for many. Nevertheless, it doesn’t

cease to fascinate. Some of the most important discoveries of
the twentieth century had a strong basis in chemistry. OK, you
may not be aspiring to the height of a new discovery, but you do
want to get a handle on the subject—enough to score well in your
exams! Whatever be your need—whether you’re a lab rat or just
looking for better study material—this collection of links will give
you all the info you need.
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Chemistry—The Wikipedia Entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry
Wikipedia needs no introduction. The Chemistry entry on
Wikipedia will give you a good overview of the subject. This will
help you keep The Big Picture in mind as you delve into the details.

An Introduction to Chemistry
http://preparatorychemistry.com
This well-organised site is the online version of the textbook An
Introduction to Chemistry by Mark Bishop. Maintained and hosted by
the author, the site is packed with tons of animations, tutorials,
checklists, PowerPoint presentations, chapter maps, glossary
quizzes, and “user-manipulatable” 3D representations of molecular
structures. The content is primarily for students starting out on a
college course in chemistry with no real background in the subject,
but we feel this will be a good companion text to those who are tack-
ling the eleventh and twelfth standard board exams as well.

The text comes in two versions—a “chemistry first” version and

an “early conversions” version. The content remains the same, but
with some rearrangement of the order of presentation. In the
“chemistry first” version, mathematics-related topics have been
pushed to later on in the book (chapter 8 and beyond), while the
“early conversions” version treats those topics earlier in the book.
You choose which version to go for, but the author stresses and
favours “chemistry first.”

The site, as you can see from the screenshot, is organised into
tabs on the top and links on the left sidebar. Both the tabs and the
sidebar links take you to almost the same set of topics.

The textbook has been broken up into chapters which are

downloadable PDFs. Additionally, each chapter has a “Concept
Map” and a Study Guide PDF, which you can download separately.
The concept map is a single-page diagram that encapsulates the
concepts learnt in the chapter and their relationships. This makes
it convenient when you want to revise and review your under-

40 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

standing of the chapter without having to run through the whole

PDF again. Another quick refresher tool is the Chapter Map. You
can click on the map for each chapter and do a mental self-check
on your knowledge in each of the areas.

Many of the chapters are further illustrated with animations.

You will need the Shockwave plug-in to view these animations, and
also the Java Runtime Environment if you want to view or play with
the 3D molecular structures. Similarly, many of the chapters also
have animated tutorials which test your knowledge and provide you
some level of guidance in your learning. In fact, the animations
themselves could also be considered as tutorials in themselves as
they expand on different aspects of each topic being discussed.

One useful learning aid is the chapter-wise checklist. Each of

the chapters have a list of actionable points which you can tick
off as you achieve each of the stated objectives. This will help you
stay focused on completing each of the requirements for each
particular chapter.

Other than the early conversions and the chemistry version,

there is also an audio book version. Unfortunately, you won’t be
able to save the audio files to disk and copy it to your MP3 player,
as the audio is only streamed from the site. There is a way to get
the audio version though. But before we tell you how, a quick word
on the PowerPoint versions of each chapter.

Each of the chapters can also be viewed as a PowerPoint ver-

sion. This is a condensed version of the site and provides you less
details than the text or audio book and more details than the
concept maps, chapter maps or study guides. One point to note
though—you don’t need PowerPoint itself to view these files.
Confused? Well, the PowerPoint slides have been converted to
two formats—PDF or MHT (Web Page Complete). The PDF will of
course open in Acrobat Reader, the MHT files will open in
Internet Explorer, and will allow you to navigate the chapter
with relative ease.

FAST TRACK 41
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Note however,
that each of these
versions are aids
than replacements
for the textbook.
Take the time to read
through the text and
avoid skimming!

Finally, how to
get the audio version
of the text that you
can then transfer to
your portable audio
player. You will need
to (no surprises here!) Online Introductory Chemistry Textbook
buy the CD version of
the Web site. Additionally, if you are constantly referring to the site
and find it really useful, the author requests a $20 (Rs 900) donation.

Chem1 Virtual Textbook

www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/virtualtextbook.html
Like Bishop’s introduction to chemistry, Chem1 is another excellent
online chemistry textbook. Created, owned and maintained by a
retired professor of chemistry, Chem1 is not just an online version of
a physical textbook. There is a clear distinction when compared to the
objectives of Bishop’s book. Chem1 tries to be more than just an
exam-oriented, syllabus-driven book. The approach is to provide all
the information regarding chemistry and its study in a single site and
unlike Bishop’s site, Chem1 is constantly being updated and revised.

The homepage is linked to different sections and chapters, as in

the screenshot. Again, like Bishop’s, the site tackles college-level
chemistry starting with an introduction that assumes no prior
knowledge. The interface may look a bit dated but the content is
pure gold! The text is crisp and easy to ready and just as easy to
understand. Most of the pages are organised as HTML pages, so they

42 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

Chem1—Virtual Chemistry Textbook

are easy to browse and read through. However, some of the older
material is still in PDF format and has not been converted yet.

The sections are organised with a rough chronological corre-

spondence to what you would expect in each semester of study.
While this is based on the Canadian education system, it will not
be radically different from the Indian system—at least in terms of
the subject matter you are expected to learn in each year of study.

In addition to the study text, there are resources for students

which can be accessed from the homepage by clicking on the “stu-
dent links” link. This page has a wealth of resources that will keep
the chemistry student fully occupied for hours on end! It contains
links to other sites dealing with all aspects of chemistry and its
study. There are links to other virtual textbooks, lecture notes,
high school chemistry courses, downloadable lecture videos plus
exam oriented information—including a very useful “How to Pass
Chemistry” guide. Similarly, you can send your teachers to the
“teachers links” section for a wealth of information that will help
them in teaching chemistry!

FAST TRACK 43
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Introductory University Chemistry Course

Part 1: www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/reference/plambeck/chem1
/ua101.html
Part 2: www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/reference/plambeck/chem2/
ua102.html

This site is a bit more advanced and requires students to have some
level of background in chemistry before attempting the course. The
course is split into two parts and both are available online.

Unlike Chem1 and Bishop’s site, this course is a bit more tra-
ditionally organised: you are presented with the text and notes,
in sequential chapters, and you are expected to read them. There
are no supporting animations or tutorials though images are
used where relevant. As with any university level course, you are
expected to use your own judgement and do any background
reading if required. A few exercises are scattered in between the
various chapters but these are primarily to quickly check your
level of comprehension of what you have learned rather than
being a learning aid.

The notes are good quality, and are presented in a straightfor-

ward style that keeps you focused on the concepts under discus-
sion. Navigation is not so easy, so you may want to keep open a
Custom Search Engine for this site (see our Fast Track to Google to
learn how to do that). You can then quickly switch over to the
other window (or tab) to run your queries when you want to search
for previous references to the topic.

The site, however, does provide with one very useful tool:
Mock Exam Papers. Unlike Indian standards, passing score is
considered to be 50 per cent, and you need at least 65 per cent
to consider yourself satisfactorily proficient in the subject.
Which means, realistically, you should be aiming to ace the
papers. The instructions are quite clear: print out the question
paper, keep blank sheets of paper ready, and hit the stop watch.
Complete the exam in the specified number of hours and then

44 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

click on the answer sheet to see answers to each question. Score

yourself and find out how you fared. As the site says: looking at
the answers or studying the questions before preparing for the
exam will not give you an accurate picture of your learning. So,
no peeking. Finish the course and then take the exam. Ace the
mock exam and wow your pals with your chemical wizardry!

ChemWeb 2000
http://library.thinkquest.org/19957/
ChemWeb 2000 is closer to Chem1 in its ideals, as it is designed
to be an all-in-one chemistry-focused resource suited for both
the beginning chemistry student as well as the advanced learn-
er. ChemWeb is part of the ThinkQuest Library that features
over 6,000 sites on various topics for students of all ages.

The site is fairly simple to navigate and browse. The informa-

tion has been simplified for easy readability and understanding,
and you can use this site to get a quick grasp of some basics if you
are strapped for time and in a hurry.

The home page has all the various topics organised on the
left sidebar. Clicking here on a topic will take you to the topic’s
page with additional links to various subtopics that make up
the main topic. This is fairly easy to follow, but if you want to go
to the page for a sub-topic (or a sub-sub-topic) the homepage
won’t help. You will need to the search engine provided to pull
out “deep links.” Again, you may be better off making a Custom
Search Engine to navigate the site.

The site also has a quick tutorial to help you learn how to the
use it. While it is not so relevant these days given the penetration
of the Web into our lives, it is still useful especially for those who
are venturing into online learning environments.

Also don’t forget to check out the various links to other sites
on chemistry. Some of the links are dead, but you are sure to find
some useful information.

FAST TRACK 45
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

One nice touch is the videos on chemistry experiments. Other

than the entertainment value, you will also get to see other stu-
dents who get their kicks from doing crazy chemistry experi-
ments! Be careful though: don’t blow up the lab! To view the video
clips, you will need the Real media player or any .rm-capable
media player (look up our Fast Track to Freeware for recommenda-
tions on Real Media capable players).

Guide
www.chemguide.co.uk
Chem Guide has a pretty comprehensive coverage of all the topics
that form part of the course requirement. Again, this is a topic-
organised site and not chapter-oriented, so the emphasis is on
learning rather than finishing prescriptive coursework. The entire
site is HTML-based with minimal use of graphics, so even if you are
on a dial-up or a low speed shared connection, the pages should
appear quite quickly.

The topics are organised in a standard drill-down hierarchy,

which may seem slightly old-fashioned given the rich interfaces
prevalent these days. However, the inclusion of the Google site
search widget more than makes up for the clunky feel. As with
other similar sites, we recommend you keep the search page open
in a separate window or tab and switch to that when you want to
search for something.

The site is useful for both the regular chemistry student as

well as for those who wish to appear for UK-based exams. Other
than the information provided on the site, you also get textbook
suggestions for further reading. In addition, there are links to
revision texts and exam-oriented practice papers.

Chemistry Animations
www.klte.hu/~lenteg/animate.html
One of the biggest problems with learning chemistry is the dif-
ficulty in translating all those equations and chemical names
into something that has practical application. A crucial part of

46 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

understanding a concept involves the ability to see a real-world

application. Given the limitations that our schools and colleges
operate under, it may not be possible to demonstrate each and
every chemical property. So we go for the next best thing:
Chemistry Animations.

This page is a collection of links to animations and videos on

chemistry that demonstrate various chemical reactions and theo-
ries. They range from the simple—like how partial vacuum pres-
sure can crush a 200-litre drum—to more esoteric reactions like
the Briggs-Rauscher Reaction. There are links to nearly 200 ani-
mations and/or videos on a wide range of topics.

Note that the site does not host the links themselves. However,
you get a easily readable table that gives the name of the experi-
ment, the source or link, and the file type of the animation. The
links are mostly to university sites.

World of Chemistry
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/chemistry/

A textbook is good when you have a prescribed course of study. As

the quantity of information grows, however, you will find yourself
wishing for a reference guide that will help you quickly refresh
the concepts you have either forgotten or are having trouble
remembering clearly.

World of Chemistry is one such site. This is an encyclopaedia-

style site with sections organised around the usual general
chemistry classifications, but also including advanced subjects
such as petrology. Click on any main heading and you will be
presented with drill-downs of various sub-topics under each cat-
egory, which you can then further drill into till you reach the
definition for each topic.

The only drawback is that the number of entries is not

really large.

FAST TRACK 47
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

World of Molecules
www.worldofmolecules.com
Chemists have often argued that the entire foundation of modern
twentieth-century civilization is based on discoveries in chemistry.
Browsing through the World of Molecules, you can be almost con-
vinced of their claim that the twenty-first century is going to be
defined by “significant progress in … molecular computing,
genomics …” and so on. If you’ve ever wondered about, or if you
want to investigate, the details of any molecule, the World of
Molecules is the place to start.

The site has both articles on molecular chemistry as well as a

Molecules Database. The content is suitable for intermediate and
advanced learners: any serious use of this site would require some
level of understanding of the chemistry involved. The database is
classified according to various types of molecules ranging from
Food Molecules, Fuel Molecules and even the Molecules of Emotion.

From the Directory of Elements box on the right you can select
any of the elements of the periodic table to get a detailed descrip-
tion of the element. This includes its position in the periodic
table, general char-
acteristics, atomic,
physical and electro-
magnetic properties
as well. Also,
depending on the
type of element
some historical
details of the ele-
ment may also be
included. For exam-
ple, in the entry for
the element Zinc, we
learn that it has
been used since
ancient times. The Molecular Web!

48 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

You can also view 3D Molecular Structures of various mole-

cules. These are static images but if you do want to view them as
“rotatable” 3D structures, you can download the 3D file and a
viewer. There are two options for the viewer: the Chime plugin and
Cosmo Player 2.1. Both are freeware, and links are provided to the
locations from where you can download them.

There are interactive tutorials that ask you to participate in sim-

ulated experiments online and guide you through the steps
involved while providing you with clear, concise explanations of the
various phenomena. For example, the explanation of molecular
modelling is made so much more simple and easier to understand
with the use of interactive Java applets that you can manipulate.

Organic Chemistry Helper

www.chemhelper.com
If the thought of studying organic chemistry gives you the shud-
ders, this site should give you some respite. It is a thoughtfully
laid-out site focused on organic chemistry and nothing else. It is
divided into six main sections: tutorials, mechanisms, practice
tests, laboratory help, a message board, and odds & ends.

The main attraction of this site is the message board. The bulk
of the activity takes place in the forums, and if you have a doubt
or want some clarification on an organic chemistry question, go
ahead and post your query. Somebody is sure to bound up and
reply sooner than later.

The tutorial section is pretty dismal: it has only one tutorial.

But there are eight Quick ‘n’ Dirty Guides on a variety of sub-
jects of interest in organic chemistry. The Mechanisms section is
somewhat better, with descriptions for about 15 chemical mech-
anisms ranging from Free Radical Halogenation to the Diels-
Alder Reaction.

The practice tests section is still better, though this is designed

more as a subject knowledge review test rather than conforming

FAST TRACK 49
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

to any syllabus-ori-
ented exam model.
Each test consists of
questions with mul-
tiple choice answers.
A Hint button is pro-
vided. Click on it
and you will get a
pop-up dialog with
details of the
answer. Once you
complete the ques- Get your Organic Chemistry right
tions, you can click
the submit button and get a grading for the test with details of the
correct explanation of the answers you got wrong.

Like the tutorial section, the Lab Help section and the Odds &
Ends section are also pretty thin. However, there are some useful
material there that should help you in the lab. Odds & Ends seems
to be promising, and hopefully the author will update the content
and provide us access to more than just the topic headings!

Chem4Kids
www.chem4kids.com
Chem4Kids is not just for kids. Anyone with an interest in learning
chemistry will find the site useful. That said, college students may
find the treatment somewhat basic. The material, however, is pre-
sented in an informal style that conveys the concepts easily.

The site is organised into six sections: Matter, Atoms, Elements

& Periodic Table, Reactions, Biochemistry, and Etcetera. On
whichever page you are, you can quickly switch to any of the other
sections by scrolling to the bottom and selecting the required sec-
tion. On the left of the page there is a complete list of links that
show the various topics within each section. This is especially use-
ful when you want to read with a plan to finish a particular sec-
tion in a given amount of time.

50 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

At the end of
each section, you
can also take a
quiz to check your
understanding of
that particular
section. The quiz
is again a knowl-
edge-oriented
quiz rather than a
“perfor mance”-
oriented one. The
emphasis is on
helping you verify
that you have
understood the
concepts. At the Chem4Kids—Chemistry made easy
end of each topic
or page there is also a list of related links that takes you to other
pages or sites that give you more details about aspects that are
indirectly related to the subject matter on the page. For exam-
ple, after reading the overview of Matter, at the bottom of the
page you will find related links on topics such as The Scientific
Method. These are not part of the Chem4Kids site, but are nev-
ertheless important concepts. In addition, you have real-world
examples arranged in alphabetical order. Each of these exam-
ples have some connection to a physical phenomenon, and a
brief explanation of the example is given along with a list of
related links that explain in greater detail how it works. A basic
glossary is also available that gives details on various chemistry-
related materials and concepts.

Chemistry Tutorials & Drills

www.chemistry-drills.com
Chemistry Tutorials & Drills is another site that offers some
tutorials and practice tests (drills) on various chemistry topics.
According to the author the site is an ongoing effort, so you can

FAST TRACK 51
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

expect updates.
Currently the site
offers tutorials and
practice tests on
recognition of organ-
ic functional groups,
VSEPR Geometry, and
balancing chemical
equations.

The balancing
equation drills are
Test your Chemistry
particularly interest-
ing as you can try out different problems at different levels of
expertise: Easy, Hard, Expert, A-Level AS, and A-Level A2. There are
1,270 chemical equations that you can practice with and hone
your equation balancing skills.

The Chemistry Thesaurus

www.chemthes.com
This is a reaction chemistry database with a style somewhat dif-
ferent from the thesauri that are companions to language dic-
tionaries,. The original meaning of the word thesaurus is “store-
house,” which is closer to the real meaning of what the Chemistry
Thesaurus is. Traditionally, finding the relevant chemistry reac-
tion information between different areas of organic and inorgan-
ic chemistry is difficult. The Chemistry Thesaurus can be consid-
ered an information warehouse with different types of chemical
species and their chemical reactions, interactions, and processes.
It is available both as a downloadable version and online.

The Thesaurus allows you to jump from chemical to chemical,

tracing the path in the synthesis of a chemical via its reactions,
interactions, and processes. You will thus get an end-to-end view of
how a particular chemical compound is synthesised through the
use of various intermediary compounds and by-products before it
gets to its final state.

52 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

The site is organised thus: there is the main index, a list of

chemical entities, data on the chemical entities, list of interac-
tions, reactions and processes, data on the interactions, reactions
and processes, list of mechanisms, and collections and data on the
mechanisms.

The main index allows

you to explore from
four different angles.
❍ Search for chemical
entities using pre-
defined search cri-
teria
❍ Search for chemical
entities using your
own search criteria
❍ View over 800 pages
of chemical interac- Chemistry Thesaurus—Comprehensive chemical
tions, reactions and reaction information
processes—expand
any reaction chain to see its data page; and
❍ View the interactions, reactions, processes as mechanisms or
collections—you can click on any mechanism or collections and
see the complete list of interactions, reactions, processes classi-
fied under that mechanism or collection
The database is not a comprehensive compendium on reaction
chemistry; rather, it is a broad look at the length and breadth of
the “reaction chemistry space.” It is designed for advanced chem-
istry students looking for an easy way to get at reaction chemistry
information available in textbooks.

The Chemogenesis Web Book

www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook.html
Chemogenesis is a new kind of analysis that looks at chemical struc-
ture and reactivity from the point of view of how it emerges from
the periodic table of elements. Chemogenesis tries to build the story
of chemistry from the point of view of its history. It assumes the
starting point as the nucleosynthesis of chemical elements inside

FAST TRACK 53
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

stars, which is followed by discovery of these elements (by humans)

and the formation of theories (classical and quantum) that attempt
to define our understanding of the chemistries involved.

The site starts with the basic concepts behind chemistry or

chemical science: “nucleosynthesis, the periodic table, elec-
tronegativity, binary materials & why reactions occur.” It then
explains the chemogenesis analysis and goes on to explain other
important elements of chemistry like chemical systems and
structural systems.

While the treatment of the subject of chemistry on this site

has nothing to do with any academic syllabus, the Chemogenesis
site is nevertheless a useful tool that can help students understand
reaction chemistry and its causes (and effects) in a more complete
or holistic manner. Again, beginners may find the site a bit over-
whelming, but advanced students shouldn’t have any problem
imbibing the contents.

Chemistry: Afterburner

This section is for chemistry nuts and lab rats…

Chemical Blogspace
http://wiki.cubic.uni-koeln.de/cb/index.php
If you were feeling a bit left
out of the blogging craze
because of your passion for
chemistry, perk up! The
Chemical Blogspace is devot-
ed entirely to chemistry.
Everything from blogs, publi-
cations and more. This is the
watering hole you will want
to hang out at if you are
Chemical Blogspace—Watering hole for
planning a career in chem- lab rats

54 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

istry or are just on the alchemists’ trail of changing common lead

into gold! The site is well-designed, and has a lot of contributions
from many chemists and chemistry enthusiasts. It has some nice
visual features like blog clouds and the like, and the best part is,
nearly everything has an RSS feed.

High School Chemistry Resources on the Web

www.chemistrycoach.com/high2.htm#The%20Chemistry%20of
While the site specifically states that it is high-school-oriented,
this huge collection of links does not limit itself to just high
school material. You have links to all kinds of chemistry-oriented
Web sites that do include both academic (both school and college
level) oriented sites as well as general interest sites. You have links
to various sites that provide you help with chemistry, sites that
explain the chemistry of many things like acid rain, emotion,
smell, etc., tutorials, online tests, lab tests, simulations, and more.
Be prepared to spend hours!

The Periodic Table of Elements

www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/pertable_fla.htm
www.touchspin.com/chem/DisplayTable.html
There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of versions of the
periodic table on the Web. You will be hard pressed to decide on
which to use, as the differentiators are largely a matter of person-
al preference. Two liked are the Flash version of the periodic table
from Chemsoc.org and the interactive table from touchspin.com.

The first is more visually appealing, and clicking on an ele-

ment will take you to an overview of that particular element. An
additional click is required to view the chemical data in either
HTML or PDF format.

The interactive version is not so polished, but is choc-a-bloc

with information regarding the element. Clicking on an element
will take to you to the Wikipedia entry for that element, which is
fairly exhaustive as compared to the Flash version from
Chemsoc.org.

FAST TRACK 55
 II CHEMISTRY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Chemistry Freeware Links

www.sciencegeek.net/Chemistry/chemware/chemware.shtml
This site contains links to many chemistry and science oriented
freeware that are helpful to students. For example, you can jump
to the site that hosts the Chime plug-in, which we’ve discussed ear-
lier. Chime allows you to view and manipulate molecular struc-
tures in 3D.

Another interesting freeware is the Orbital Viewer software

with which you can create orbital animations of atoms and elec-
trons. In addition, you can make cutaways, light the orbital, make
shadows, show locations where the probability drops to zero, as
well as save the results as image files in many formats from BMP
to VRML.

You can view animations of important chemical principles

with the ChemLand collection of Shockwave files.

For those of you who write chemistry reports on your word

processor and are wondering how to add all those chemistry sym-
bols without leaving a space and then manually entering them by
hand, use The Royal Chemistry’s TrueType Font. This font contains all
the chemistry symbols which you can then use as required in your
word processor. The only limitation is that you cannot “embed”
the font—for example, when converting to PDF. The user who reads
your document will need to install the fonts separately before
being able to read your documents.

If you’re looking for molecular modelling software, don’t for-

get to check out www.edinformatics.com/mathmol/mm_soft-
ware.htm.

MIT OpenCourseWare | Chemistry

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Chemistry
Have you ever wondered what they teach at the world’s leading
and prestigious scientific institution—The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT)? Well, with the OpenCourseWare initiative,

56 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
CHEMISTRY II

you can get access to the lecture notes and syllabus that chemistry
students at MIT use.

The OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative is a free and open edu-

cational resource made available by many universities around the
world. The one
thing to note is
that the OCW is
not a formal
degree or certifi-
cate-getting
process. You can
supplement OCW
with your regular
work to get high-
powered insights
into your area of
study, or just take MIT OCW—Chemistry courses from world leading
universities
a course because
of your passion for the subject.

You will not get “formal” access to the MIT faculty through
OCW, but you do get access to actual courses (lecture notes, online
textbooks, etc.) conducted, and associated assignments and exam
papers. You can also use the discussion groups to help you in your
studies and get feedback. However, don’t expect it as your due. Be
courteous; the teachers / professors who may respond will not nec-
essarily belong to MIT—they are drawn from the worldwide teach-
ing community participating in the OCW project, and they are
devoting their time to the project for free.

FAST TRACK 57
58 FAST TRACK
Biology

B iology class can be fun—and no, we don’t mean giggling at all

the diagrams. It’s also pretty unforgiving at exam-time—fudge
the name of an enzyme or relocate body parts in a diagram and
you’ll be looking at generously awarded zeroes on your paper. If
your textbooks are boring (of course they are), you can turn to the
Web for a more fun way to learn about Life, the Universe and
Everything.
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

3.1 Lessons Online

In this section, we’ll feature sites that are practically textbooks

themselves. However, since they’re not Indian, they may not follow
your syllabus to the tee, but will nonetheless be useful side-by-side
with your own textbooks.

3.1.1 An Online Biology Book

(www.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/
biobooktoc.html)

Hosted by the
Estrella Mountain
Community College
in Arizona, the
Online Biology Book
is more or less a tran-
scription of college
lectures by M J
Farabee, professor at
said college. Needless The Online Biology Book makes no pretences
to say, the book covers college-level
topics, ranging from the innards of
the cell to ecosystem dynamics and
the reasons behind mass extinc-
tions. The content was last revised
in late 2001, which is acceptable,
considering that Nature isn’t going
to change its ways in six wee years.
The pages are in simple, no-frills
HTML, and we must give it a brown-
ie point or two for the well-execut-
ed diagrams—they’re neat, clear,
and quite self-explanatory. Each
chapter comes with images, links
and cross-references, and links jar- The Biology Book’s collection of
gon to the glossary. images—both self-generated and
external—is excellent

60 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
BIOLOGY III

3.1.2 Lubey’s BioHELP!

http://users.adelphia.net/~lubehawk/BioHELP!/biotopcs.html

Written by Steve Lubey, a

former Biology teacher,
this site is designed for
high school level students,
though isn’t comprehen-
sive by far. For what it does
cover, though, it delivers
well with simple language
and covers most of the
basics.
Not the most well-designed site, but Lubey’s
BioHELP! is well organised and easy to follow
If you’re looking for a
crash course in Genetics,
this site is amazing. All the
chapters under the
Genetics section are writ-
ten in a simple, mildly
funny style, complete with
diagrams that look (and
probably are) hand-drawn.
At the end of every lesson,
or every concept if lessons You’re just lucky you’re seeing this in Black
are large, is a quiz—a quick and White
objective-type round-up of
what you’ve learnt thus far.

Unfortunately, while Mr Lubey knows his biology, nobody

taught him the principles of Web design. He seems to be one of
those people who can’t say “fun” without using the Comic Sans
font. Pair this with some poor choices of colour, and you have a
fairly off-putting site, were it not for the content.

FAST TRACK 61
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

3.1.3 The MIT Biology Hypertextbook

http://web.mit.edu/esgbio/www/

The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
makes a lot of study mate-
rial available online—
there’s some trivia for you.
Among this impeccable
material is the Biology
Hypertextbook, which,
according to them, is “A
website which contains the
The MIT Biology Hypertextbook is very
basic molecular biology advanced
that is the basis of MIT’s
core Biology courses, ‘Introductory Biology’”.

The material is perhaps more advanced than you’ll need, but

it’s an excellent resource if you want to learn beyond your syl-
labus. The Chemistry Review at the beginning is a quick recap of
essential fundas, and an indicator of things to come—you’ll be read-
ing about Mendelian Genetics and Recombinant DNA, among
other things.

As the site mentions, the Hypertextbook is more of a prepara-

tory course for MIT’s programmes, so this isn’t comprehensive
either—clearly you’re expected to know your stuff before advanc-
ing on to MIT material.

3.1.4 The Complete Introduction To General Biology

www.waybuilder.net/free-ed/Science/Biology/GenBio/
GenBio02 _TBK.asp

This page gives you free study material—assignments, PowerPoint

presentations, etc.—to use alongside your copy of Biology by Sylvia
S Mader. Even if you don’t own that particular book, this site is an
excellent resource to gain a little extra knowledge and test what

62 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
BIOLOGY III

you already have. The site

is meant for high school
level students.

The Animation Quizzes

are perhaps the most enter-
taining part of this site.
You’re shown a brief,
informative cartoon of This textbook supplement does its job well
sorts about the topic in
question, and you then need to answer a
few quiz questions following it. It’s fun
even if you’re not studying Biology!

For each les-

son, you can
download a
PowerPoint
presentation
that summaris-
es the topic
The Lecture PowerPoint Take a quick quiz based on
quite well. The presentations are excellent an animation
images used are
incredible, and overall, the presentations are well-structured
and vibrant.

3.2 General Interest And Interactive

The sites that follow aren’t bookish at all—instead, they focus on

learning about different aspects of Biology through interactivity
and, well, non-bookish methods. Don’t expect them to come to aid
when you need to cram for a paper—they’re more about the “joys
of learning.”

FAST TRACK 63
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

3.2.1 The Tree Of Life Web Project

http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

The Tree of Life (ToL) repre-

sents the collective efforts
of a hundred-odd biologists
from around the world,
and has evolved into some-
thing of a bio-wiki. Before
starting out on your jour-
ney, read the ToL learning
guide at http://tolweb.org/ The Tree of Life is nurtured by hoards of
tree /learn/learning.html. biologists from different countries
It gives you a look at how
the site is organised, and
how you need to go about
getting the information
you desire. You’ll also find
help under the Help menu
at the top of the page.

Navigating the site is The Tree of Life’s articles are very well
very wiki-like—you can view presented
the most popular pages, the most recent, or just any old random
page. Each article page is loaded with some remarkable imagery, a
classification chart, lots of information, and tonnes of references.
Throughout the pages, you’ll find highlighted words that display a
brief definition when you hover the mouse cursor over them. At the
top left of the article, you’ll see a faint button—click on it to bring up
controls that will let you navigate up to the parent group of the arti-
cle’s subject, a subgroup, if any, or sideways within the same group.

One more interesting thing about the ToL is the Treehouse. It’s
a collection of pages that centres around a particular theme, cre-
ated by the users themselves. There are very detailed instructions
on how to make a Treehouse in the Learning Guide itself—round
up a few friends and give it a go!

64 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
BIOLOGY III

3.2.2 Cells Alive!

www.cellsalive.com

Cells Alive! is a site dedicat-

ed to life’s basic unit. The
content seems a little child-
ish, but is quite informative
nonetheless. What strikes
you most about this site is Learn everything about cells
the generous use of visual
aids—it feeds you your infor-
mation with more diagrams
and animations than text!

You’ll find plenty of

interactive presentations
here—How Big Is A...?, for
example, shows you a few
everyday bacteria and virus-
es on the head of a pin, just
Learn about scale in How Big Is A...?
to give you an idea of how
big stuff really is. The human hair, for example, is gargantuan
when compared to bacteria, which in turn tower over the viruses.
The Cell Cams are like your very own Big Brother, but for Cells!
Then there are the Cell Models, where you can choose to view dia-
grams of plant and animal cells—hovering over a part of the cell
tells you what it is, and clicking gives you the details. You’ll also
find jigsaw puzzles and crosswords, should you feel so inclined.

You should also visit the Cell and Crystal Galleries—the images
used are impressive, though quite small.

3.2.3 Biology Online

www.biology-online.org
Biology Online is an excellent resource if you’re looking for infor-
mation for a research project, or just interested in biology. It’s
divided into four parts—the forums, articles, tutorials, and the dic-

FAST TRACK 65
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

tionary. The forums are

alive with discussions on
topics ranging from zoolo-
gy to bioinformatics, and
are a great place to start if
you’re looking for answers
to questions you might
have. Of course, you’ll need
to register before you start
discussing. Biology Online’s forums are teeming with
questions
The Articles section is a
collation of a ridiculous
number of biology-related
articles, further subcate-
gorised according to sub-
ject. The articles come from
sources like Yale and
Carnegie Mellon University,
so you don’t have to worry
about quality of content.
Read through the modest collection of
The sheer number of arti- tutorials at Biology Online
cles you can read will keep
you busy for days, if not more.

The tutorials section is well-structured, though no tutorial has

been updated since 2005. Each tutorial is a like a chapter in a text
book, and touches upon (at the very least) everything related to
what you’re reading about. The tutorials section isn’t as copious as
the Articles, however, and you’ll find yourself going through it
rather fast.

For best results, have a window/tab of the Biology Dictionary

open while you’re reading the tutorials. The dictionary is actually
a wiki, so you can even add to it if you find missing terms. Make
sure your contribution is authentic, though.

66 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
BIOLOGY III

3.2.4 The Virtual Frog Dissection Kit

http://froggy.lbl.gov/virtual/

The Virtual Frog Dissection kit

is a part of the Whole Frog
project, which enables high
school students to learn the
nitty-gritty of frog anatomy
through the wonders of 3D
MRI rather than actually cut-
ting them up. The kit is the
result of the efforts taken by
the team.

It isn’t the most user-

friendly of Web-based pro-
grams, we found. If you’re
working on a high resolution, Fluffy the frog, all ready for his
the frog is going to look tiny, so dissection
we recommend hitting the “+”
button in the top-right corner.
Once you’ve done that, study-
ing the frog’s individual sys-
tems is as simple as turning
layers on and off using the
checkboxes at the bottom. Use
the diamond on top to flip or
rotate the frog as you please.

While informative, the

application does tend to get
frustrating—every single thing
you do causes the page to
reload, so if you’re not on a Can you build a frog from scratch?
reasonably fast connection,
you’re not going to like the experience much—a more responsive
update would be more than welcome at this stage.

FAST TRACK 67
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The inverse of the dissection kit is the Virtual Frog Builder

game, which shows you the frog’s nervous system, and has you
build the rest around it. Click a check box to activate a part, and
click inside the diagram to place it. You get points for every correct
attempt, and lose them for every wrong one. The underlying soft-
ware is the same as that for the dissection, so getting familiar with
the dissection first is advisable. As the site says, “building a frog
can be harder than it looks.”

3.2.5 The Virtual Cell

www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/cell/

The Virtual Cell lets you get

inside a plant cell using just
your mouse. The page is simple,
and doesn’t seem to have been
updated in a while. Navigating
the cell itself can be a little
tricky, but somewhat starts to
make sense after a while.
Here’s what you have to do:

1. First, select an action—Cut Get into the cell with the Virtual Cell
gets you in the cell, Turn
rotates it, Stereo generates a stereo image, and so on.
2. Select a specific view from the Search drop down—you can zoom
into any of the parts of the cell, like the chloroplasts. If you
don’t want to view anything specific, just set it to “nothing”.
3. Click on the image of the cell to zoom in.

When you zoom into specific views, you get a little dose of
information about what you’re viewing, though you’ll need to
turn elsewhere for more advanced information. The site is also
badly in need of a modern makeover—for now, you’ll have to con-
tent yourself with what’s already there.

68 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
BIOLOGY III

3.2.6The Anatomy Of Memory

www.exploratorium.edu/memory/braindissection/index.html

This micro-site is part of the

much bigger Exploratorium
(www.exploratorium.edu).
Apparently, the brain of the
sheep is quite similar to our
own, so studying its structure
offers insights into ours—specif-
ically, the areas that deal with
memory, which is what this dis-
section is about. It isn’t as gross
as it sounds, so it shouldn’t be The sheep’s brain is much like ours, it
too much of a bother to those seems
with weak stomachs.

You can walk through the dissection on the site itself, or down-
load the videos (use the little RealPlayer icon on the left). Navigation
is a little weird—the Next and Previous buttons aren’t at the bottom
like they should be, and we still haven’t figured out what the but-
tons’ images are supposed to be. That aside, each step is shown in
vivid detail, and should you happen to land a sheep’s brain of your
own, you won’t have trouble taking it apart yourself.

3.2.7 The Franklin Institute Resource For Science Learners

www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/

This is more of a general interest site than anything else—it’s

about Life and Living Things. Instead of the usual boring cate-
gories, you can browse information under “Individuals”,
“Families”, “Neighbourhoods” and “The Circle of Life”; the titles
are intriguing enough to get you started, but are a tad mislead-
ing when you look at the information under them. Still, none of
the content seems like it’s been forced into a category. Click on
“For Learners” for a dose on a few interesting topics—not all may
be related to biology, mind you, and we wouldn’t be surprised if

FAST TRACK 69
 III BIOLOGY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

the page was updated by the

time this reaches you. Just to
demystify the classifications—
the Individuals section deals
with the building blocks of life
itself—cells, tissues, and so on.
The Families section is all about
how plants and animals are
classified; the Neighbourhoods
in question are ecosystems and
how living beings interact with Learn about Biology and other
sciences at the Franklin Institute
them. Finally, the Circle of Life
is all about...well...the circle of
life, life cycles and so on.

3.2.8 Cow’s Eye Dissection

http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cow_eye/

This is another micro-

site within the
Exploratorium which
teaches you all you
need to know about
the eye—in almost
painful detail. You can
learn about the eye
from its friendly text
Definitely not for the weak of stomach
pages, or watch videos
of the dissection of a cow’s eye—you’ll need RealPlayer for this.
You can also download a step-by-step guide to doing your own
cow’s eye dissection! While the pictures of a pre-teen playing
with cows’ eyes may be a little disconcerting for some, it’s worth
the effort to hold your lunch down—after all, biology isn’t always
neat an clean now, is it?

70 FAST TRACK
History

I f you’re a mugger-upper, skip this chapter! What we’re

presenting here will augment what you learn in class—if you’re
interested in going beyond class, that is. A real grasp on history
cannot be had from one textbook or even three—hence this
chapter, for those keen on knowledge.
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

History is a touchy subject. No two historians will agree upon

any given event or person—whether it’s about “Was Akbar a great
ruler” or “Was it World War II that resulted in India’s independ-
ence.” What you see in your history textbook would typically be a
politically correct assimilation of the work of various historians.

We believe different perspectives are in order: whether it’s just

to impress your teacher about how much you know, or whether it’s
to forge a real understanding of world and Indian events, it’s
always a good thing to read up from diverse sources. What follows
is a listing and review of some sites for world and Indian history.

Along similar lines, when it comes to history, don’t believe

everything you read on the Internet—and, for that matter, don’t
believe everything your textbook says! You’ll need to assimilate the
information you get and develop your own ideas—the more the
sources, the better.

4.1 Classic Encyclopedia

www.1911encyclopedia.org

From the site, “This

LoveToKnow Classic
Encyclopedia project
works to bring to you
the renowned 1911
Edition of the
Encyclopaedia
Britannica.” It’s not a A lot of things, with a good amount of history
site only about histo- thrown in
ry—it’s about a lot of things, ranging from places and languages to
health. But there is a history section as well.

The history section is devoted to a lot of world history. It’s

organised in hierarchical fashion where possible, for example,
Europe > British Islands > England > South West England.

72 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

You might not want to navigate to “Members of the US House

of Representatives,” but you’ll certainly want to take a look at
Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Middle Ages, the history of
Britain, France, and Germany, and, of course, the history of India.

Let’s take an example: Ancient Greece. There are 142 articles in

the category, including those on such well-heard words as
“Acropolis,” “Olympia,” and “Rhodes.”

We took a look at the history of Rhodes, and found that the

article is very well-hyperlinked. Here’s a short excerpt:

“Among such settlements may be mentioned Phaselis in Lycia,

perhaps also Soli in Cilicia, Salapia on the east Italian coast, Gela in
Sicily, the Lipari islands, and Rhoda in north-east Spain. In home
waters the Rhodians exercised political control over Carpathos
and other islands.”

You may not be enamoured by the history of Rhodes, but note

here that all the italicised words are linked to articles—essentially
everything that might need further explanation. It’s a gold-mine
of information.

There is no chronological presentation; under History of

Germany, for example, we’d have liked a timeline and a sequence
of events. What we get instead is links to a whole lot of articles,
and one needs to piece the story together.

It’s the same with the History of India: names and terms all
over the page—coverage is comprehensive, like we said—but no
continuity. Aurangzeb. Bahadur Shah I. Peshwa. Lord Bentinck.

This site is best used as a reference—indeed, it makes no pre-

tence at being anything else; it is, after all, an encyclopaedia. So if
you’re reading up on history and come across “thugs”—come here
and look up the term. (Yes, it’s there. And “thuggy” is a word, too.)

FAST TRACK 73
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

4.2 Sparknotes
www.sparknotes.com/history/

Sparknotes’ history study guides

are pretty good, in our opinion.
There’s a wide range of periods and
regions to choose from at this page,
and there are quite a few that
might be of interest to you.
Unfortunately, there’s no Indian
History section.

Note that you can buy a PDF

(and then print it out) for any of the
headings for just about $5. We
don’t know what’s in the PDFs
For the eager student
that’s not in the notes on the site—
no word on that; it just says the PDFs are “full versions.” So what
are these? Buy a PDF and tell us!

In any case, choose to read up on the Roman empire, the

Renaissance, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the
World Wars, and a lot of American history. Of course, there are
more, but we’re sure you don’t want to read about The Interwar
Years (1919—1938) in the United States.

In each section—say the French Revolution—there’s a set of

blue-coloured links: an Overview, a Summary of Events, and Key
People and Terms. These are followed by grey-coloured links,
which talk about dates and events in detail.

These are followed by study questions, a quiz, and a bibliog-

raphy. There happens to be an easy navigation bar for quick
access to sections.

Organisation is pretty neat: it goes date-wise (the grey links). If

you’re a casual reader, the blue links (the Overview etc.) should

74 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

suffice. We must say that the quality of the writing, while not
exceptional, is student-friendly. Here’s the first paragraph of the
Overview of the French Revolution:

“Historians agree unanimously that the French Revolution was a

watershed event that changed Europe irrevocably, following in the footsteps
of the American Revolution, which had occurred just a decade earlier. The
causes of the French Revolution, though, are difficult to pin down: based on
the historical evidence that exists, a fairly compelling argument could be
made regarding any number of factors.”

(OK, we did say that historians don’t agree upon anything, but
this seems to be an exception.)

We’d recommend the site not just to students but also to

adults interested in getting a grip of some world history in a short
while. Just read all the Overviews!

4.3 The Encyclopedia of World History

Ancient, Medieval, and Modern

www.bartleby.com/67/

Here, you’ll find arti-

cles ranging from
“Homo Erectus” all the
way to “Global
Warming.” The really
cool thing about the
site is that it’s well
chronologically
ordered, so if you go to
“The French
Revolution and
Europe, 1789-1914,”
you can then go to All in order!

FAST TRACK 75
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

❍ Overview
❍ The French Revolution, 1789—1799
❍ The Napoleonic Period, 1799—1815
❍ Western and Central Europe, 1815—1848

And so on. Each heading—that is, article—is just about the

right length, giving you no more nor less information than is
essential. At least in our opinion; your mileage may vary.

Let’s look at one article in detail—let’s use the French

Revolution again as an example:

“Causes of the Revolution.

“(1) Intellectual currents of the Enlightenment proposed governments

based on contracts or constitutions rather than divine authority. Such
ideas were discussed in the salons organized by women in Paris and by
the philosophes (reform-minded intellectuals) surrounding Diderot’s
encyclopaedia. (2) Economic developments expanded a middle class that,
although often involved in the royal bureaucracy, had little access to for-
mal politics. This middle class was concerned with obstructions to eco-
nomic development and commerce, such as the guild system, internal
tariffs, and the lack of common weights and measures and adequate
roles for professionals…”

It is, as you can see, not for the average, casual reader. It
assumes someone with some knowledge of historical terms and
even with some knowledge of history. Somewhat not recommend-
ed, if you’re in the tenth standard, and somewhat recommended
as a reference if you’re doing a B.A.

Why we’re recommending the site is mostly because of the

excellent chronological ordering of events, and the range of sub-
jects under one umbrella. Unfortunately, the section on Indian
history is hardly comprehensive; British Indian history is summed
up on one (long) page.

76 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

4.4 The History Guide

www.historyguide.org

From the page,

The History
Guide contains
the complete
content of three
undergraduate
courses in
European history
which will cer-
tainly be of use to More literary than most
those studying such topics at the college level. The History Guide
contains 90 lectures in European history from ancient Sumer to
the fall of Soviet-style communism in 1989. In essence, what is pre-
sented here is an online textbook in western civilisation.

The contents pane on the left lists out the topics covered, which
include A Student’s Guide to the Study of History, What is History?,
Ancient and Medieval European History, Early Modern European
History, 20th Century Europe, and more. Of course, it’s all Europe,
but then you do have things of interest here—the French Revolution,
the Russian Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and so on.

To use (or overuse) our favourite example—the French

Revolution—here’s an excerpt from the overview:

“The outbreak of the French Revolution in the summer of 1789 stirred

the imagination of nearly all Europeans. The French revolutionaries—that
is, those men and women who made conscious choices—sensed in their
hearts and minds that they were witnessing the birth of a new age. And if
the revolutionaries of Paris, Bordeaux, Lyons or Toulouse knew they were
innovating, knew they were helping to usher in the dawn of a New
Jerusalem, so too did observers in London, Berlin, Philadelphia, Moscow,
Manchester, Geneva, Amsterdam or Boston.”

FAST TRACK 77
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

As you can see, this is more of a literary work than the average
textbook, and some will find it more readable for that reason.
Those who just need a quick run-down of the facts, stay away! The
writer digresses often, and there are quotes aplenty. Still, for those
who like a good read and want to come up to speed on some his-
tory, this site should provide hours of infotainment.

As a final word, we should mention that the pages here are

moderately hyperlinked, but to external sources, so not all of
them may work.

4.5 Spartacus Educational

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

Links, links, and more links! That’s what you’ll find here—and the
links cover diverse topics. This is a site you’ll just have to browse to
get a feel of, but don’t worry—it’s not one of those all-links-no-
material sites. In fact, there’s almost too much material.

There’s actually a site

map, and a search box.
Now, immediately after
“Encyclopedia of Football”
comes “The crimes of
George H W Bush.”

OK. Before you think

this is a totally spaced-out
site, let’s take a look at the As scrambled as it gets!
link called “Second World
War.” Here’s a sampling of the links under that heading:

❍ The Armed Forces

❍ Russian Military Leaders
❍ War Journalists
❍ Nazi Germany

78 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

❍ The Holocaust
❍ Weapons and Tactics

The site is unconventional in presentation. Under the link

“background to the war,” you get a few dates and events, with no
text. However, most words there are hyperlinked—such as “Adolf
Hitler,” “Reichstag,” and so on. As you might expect, these links
lead to pages chock-full of information. (And if you didn’t guess it,
a lot of that information is hyperlinked, too.)

Similarly, under “British Military Leaders,” you have no text,

just a whole bunch of hyperlinks—but those linked pages contain
a wealth of information.

Broad topics covered include the Wars, British History, Nazi

Germany, the American Civil War, the Russian Revolution, and so
on—and amongst the not-so-usual suspects, you have “Ask a History
Question” (!) which requires registration, the Kennedy Assassination
Forum (now what could that be?), the history of aviation… you get
the idea. A total mish-mash, but if you can live with it, you do get
the information, which happens to be pretty well-written.

The subject matter here is vast, and you’ll have to piece togeth-
er the story yourself. This is a site more suitable for detailed study
than for casual reading or brushing up. For the student, it would
be advisable to use each of the individual pages for background
information on what is learnt in class.

4.6 World Civilizations

www.wsu.edu/~dee/

Don’t be put off by the design of the site—it looks like someone has
been playing around with some HTML and the Caps Lock key here.
Anyway, when you click “Browse,” you get some headings that
don’t seem to make too much sense. But persist and you’ll find
that it’s an online course, with glossaries and such thrown in with
online text. To be perfectly honest, it’s horribly organised.

FAST TRACK 79
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The online texts are large. For example, we clicked “Culture,

Conflict, and Modern World Civilizations after 1500,” and got to
a page that listed out sev-
eral class units. There are
references (which might
or might not be useful—
you find out) and sec-
tions on the texts avail-
able at the site.

So here, click on Unit

2 > Brave New Worlds: What
is Reformation? > Text File:
Discovery and Reformation,
and you’ll get a large text A short course on non-Web design
that begins thus:

“It’s hard to know why Europeans suddenly expanded over the globe
with such rapidity and such ferocity. At the beginning of the fifteenth
century, the world was a fairly small and contained place for Europeans.
While they knew about far-flung areas such as China and southern
Africa, their world view was still narrowly focused on Europe and the
Mediterranean.”

“Within two hundred years, Europeans would be all over the world
with settlements on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. By
1600, most of the coastline of the Americas would be under the domination
of Europeans as well as all the major cities in eastern Africa. How did this
happen? How did Europeans suddenly end up all over the world? And how
did this change the European world view?”

Interesting. Similarly, you’ll find stuff on Martin Luther, The

Enlightenment, The Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, and so on.
To give you an idea of the haphazard navigation system again,
there’s one text called “Capitalism” and one called “Capitalism
Reader.” And the first one is actually about the Industrial
Revolution, and it happens to be titled “Capitolism.” Huh?

80 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

With all these shortcomings, why are we recommending

Richard Hooker’s site (he happens to be, apart from the Author
and Principal Editor, responsible for “Graphic Design” and
“Technical Design”)? Well, the site “is the culmination of over two
years of web-based teaching and learning. The site combines the
reading and course materials of two World Cultures courses
taught using web-based materials since Fall of 1994. The site is
now expanding into a larger resource for a larger population and
distribution of students and will eventually consist of a rich
anthology of readings, a complete set of textbook materials, a set
of interrelated learning modules, and a finished glossary.”

We don’t really care what it will be some time from now, but
what it is now is a collection of some very useful resources. Like the
large document on colonial expansion we mentioned above. And if
you’re looking for something—say the French Revolution—you will
find it if you browse hard enough, ignoring some broken links.

The texts are good, period. Here’s another sampler, this one
from the beginning text on the French Revolution, of which you
are, by now, doubtless sick:

“History has not been kind to Louis XVI; in fact, history is rarely kind
to the losers. He is painted as vain, unintelligent, and ineffectual, so clue-
less that on the day the Bastille was seized by revolutionaries, he wrote in
his diary, ‘Rien,’ ‘Nothing happened.’

“It’s difficult, however, to really assign any blame. The Revolution itself
was an extraordinarily complicated affair; it was principally lit by the
antagonisms between the first two and the Third Estate, antagonisms root-
ed in decades of abuse and frustration. It is certain that Louis XVI failed to
maintain the centralization of power; all the forces in France were conspir-
ing to fragment power away from the monarchy.”

(A few pictures stand side by side with the broken links to pro-
vide visual relief.)

FAST TRACK 81
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

About Indian History On The Web

We said history is a touchy subject. Let’s qualify that a bit further:
Indian history is a very touchy subject. The education ministries in
some states are going out of their way to rewrite it. There is heavy
controversy about whether the Aryan Invasion happened. And,
let’s face it, we Indians, if not exactly racist, are communalists of
the worst order. You’ll find historical sites glorifying each of our
major religions and their followers and what they did, each of our
geographical regions and their contributors to our country’s
greatness, and what not.

In such a state, how is a student to study history? We can say

nothing more than what we said before: use your own judgment.

We at Digit do not stand in support of any community, religion,

or whatever; the sites we mention below, while informative for the
most part, contain a bias one way or the other. Although it’s
understood, we reiterate: we are not responsible for the content of
the following sites! We make an exception to our rule of recom-
mending sites, and expressly state that we are not recommending
any of the following. We are merely pointing you to them.

4.7 Kamat’s Potpourri

www.kamat.com/kalranga/itihas/history.htm

This is a page we present as a brief overview of Indian history

through the ages. The topics covered start off from the Indus and
Saraswati Civilisations through the Vedic Period to the “Moghul”
Empire (sic) and British India. It does call itself a potpourri, so
don’t expect anything more or anything less. There’s a special sec-
tion on the Timeline of Karnataka, by which we gather that the
author is from that state.

You’d do well to explore all the links and choose what you want
to settle down upon and read. Some of the information is sketchy,
and some is detailed—which only reflects the author’s bias.

82 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

The Timeline (as in the screenshot) is good; also note, in the

first column, “More Timelines.”

Decent design, colourful, informative

The visual elements at this site are rich, and enticing enough
to make you want to read. A typical excerpt follows.

“In his efforts to propagate Buddhism, Ashoka built shrines and monas-
teries and inscribed Buddhist teachings on rocks and pillars in many places.
He sent missionaries to countries as remote as Greece and Egypt; his own
son, a monk, carried Buddhism to Sri Lanka, where it is still the major reli-
gion. Despite Ashoka’s vigorous exertions of faith, he was tolerant of other
religions. The empire enjoyed remarkable prosperity during his reign.

“Some Indian historians think that his policy of peace led to the down-
fall of the Mauryan empire, which fell apart after his death. He was soon
largely forgotten by Indian tradition and only remembered in Buddhist cir-
cles as a great patron of the faith. With the deciphering of his inscriptions
during the 19th century, he took his rightful place in world history as one
of the most benevolent rulers of antiquity.”

Now why did we choose this site? It’s simple: it’s as culture-neu-
tral as we could find. The site has all its sources listed out, again in
the first column. But then, which history site doesn’t, and how
hard are sources to find?

FAST TRACK 83
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

We also liked this site for the extra-curricular sections, for

example, “Medieval Men’s Fashionable Hats.” For the more curious
amongst us, of course. And also for bringing to our notice some lit-
tle-known rulers, regions, and so on… explore!

4.8 Indian History

www.indhistory.com

This is probably the closest to what you might call a super-site on

Indian history, though there really is none worth that name. There
are three links for convenient navigation, right at the top: Ancient
India, Medieval India, and Modern India. There’s also a navigation
pane on the left for some sub-topics.

From “Mediaeval India”: the navigation pane is gone, you get a

very brief sketch of mediaeval Indian history, and then the nice
part—a timeline with working links. Some of the links lead to long
pages, some to short stubs, but they’re all informative—and most of
them illustrated as well. Here’s a look at a section of the timeline:

1605—Jahangir
1609—The Dutch open a factory at Pulicat
1615—Submission of Mewar to the Mughals
1620—Capture of Kangra Fort
1623—Shah Jahan revolts against Jahangir
1628—Shah Jahan proclaimed
Emperor
1636—Aurangzeb appointed
Viceroy of Deccan
1646—Shivaji captures Torna

Yes, there are even entries

for things like “The Dutch
open a factory at Pulicat.”
Let’s take a look at part of
one entry: Reasonably Detailed

84 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

“Jahangir, after being enthroned the king, was seized with the desire to
conquer Kangra and capture the fort, about which it was believed: ‘He who
held the fort, ruled all the hill states’.

“The fort, a winsome blend of the medieval and ancient genre of fort
architecture, covers a fairly large area and is guarded by high ramparts
and a huge wall. Its gates have been named after its conquerors who cap-
tured it from time to time.”

It’s such snippets along the timeline that make the site worth
the while. For example, here, Jahangir was mentioned earlier
along the timeline. It’s as close as you can get (on the Web) to a
year-by-year timeline of Indian history.

Unfortunately, there are no sources quoted at all, as far as we can

see. But then, not all Indian textbooks quote their sources, either.

4.9 South Asian History

http://india_resource.tripod.com/sahistory.html

Here’s an excerpt from the “About this site” link:

“Our selections illuminate aspects of South Asian History that aren’t

always very well known, but of crucial importance to the region’s future.

“Although most of our selections focus primarily on the Indian experi-

ence, there are many aspects of Indian history that also reflect the history
of its South Asian neighbours. In the ancient world, social and political bor-
ders were neither fixed nor did they always tally with present national divi-
sions. For instance, during much of India’s Buddhist period (and also dur-
ing the Gupta period), Afghanistan was politically and culturally affiliat-
ed with Northern India…

“Trade and cultural links between India and its neighbours like
Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were usually quite extensive, even extend-
ing to Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam in the East, and Persia,

FAST TRACK 85
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Central Asia, the Arab world and coastal E. Africa in the West.”

This is, as we gather, mostly a site on Indian history—keeping

the country’s neighbours in mind for perspective.

Here’s a sampling of subjects covered:

❍ The “Aryan Invasion”
❍ History of Mathematics in India
❍ Islamization and the Arab conquest of Sindh
❍ Rise and fall of the Mughals
❍ The Sufis
❍ British Education in India
❍ “Moderates” versus “Extremists” in the battle for “Swaraj”

The site does

rake up some
controversial
issues, which we
won’t mention.
But this adds to
the flavour and
makes for a
more interesting
read—the other
All text and no pictures: hard-core stuff
side of the coin.
It should provoke young minds and fuel the pursuit for more—
after all, what’s history without a little controversy?

“But even as there are many who have been inspired by Gandhi’s life
and contributions, there are also those who are sharply at odds with his
message. None of us should have any illusions that Gandhian charity alone
is enough to transform our nation, or enough to realize it’s maximum
potential. Every nation must always look to the future—no nation can
afford the luxury of lionizing past leaders with it’s eyes closed to what may
have been serious shortcomings, or even fatal flaws.”

There you have it. Go ahead, pick a side!

86 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
HISTORY IV

4.10 Boloji.com: History

www.boloji.com/history/index.htm

This is a collection of articles that seems eclectic, but which, in

fact, cover a large portion of Indian history. They aren’t all written
by one person, and that means diversity in style as well as in bias.
(Yes, like we said, you have to get used to bias in Indian history.)
Here are excerpts from some of the essays:

❍ A Nation without a History

“The attempts to decipher the true history of India have been too few and too
often undertaken under unfavourable conditions. The ancient Indians them-
selves often freely conflated their ideas about India’s past events with their
beliefs. The end result was an often confusing mix of fantastical mythology
with plenty of internal contradictions, unbelievable timeframes and an end-
less supply of names of kings, priests, seers, noblemen and commoners. Taken
as a whole, the testimony would seem tainted and probably worthless.”

❍ Language and Architecture of Ancient India

“The Vedic language (later called as Sanskrit) was akin to languages of the
European continent spoken by tribesmen around 2000 B.C.E. The earliest
surviving Sanskrit literature is the Rig Veda. As time went on many of the
words of the original language were forgotten and became obsolete.”

❍ The Indomitable Marathas

“Shahji Bhonsle had a son, Shivaji by name, who rebelled against the
Bijapur’s authority. A mere seventeen-year-old Shivaji carved himself
some land around Pune by using trickery and ingenuity in 1647. This
land had belonged to the Bijapur Sultans and was adjacent to the
Deccan border of the Mughal Empire.”

As you can see, the essays are written in a rather matter-of-fact

way—not really literary. The site seems to have been designed as a
platform for budding historians to showcase their work. Also,
there’s no timeline so you’ll have to piece together the story for
yourself. We wouldn’t recommend this site if you don’t already
have a grounding in the basics. This is just additional, but useful,

FAST TRACK 87
 IV HISTORY
THE STUDENT’S WEB

information. But we should mention that the collection of history

articles does include several informative ones on British and
Mughal India.

The “Our
Heritage” link at
the left is interest-
ing. You’ll find
links to
Architecture,
B u d d h i s m ,
Culture, People,
Places, and so on.
These are loosely
Articles without a connection—but they’re good
related to history:
for example, the articles on Buddhism focus more on the religious
aspect, but do cover some of the historical.

88 FAST TRACK
Geography And
Civics

A s in history, geography, too, should ideally be learnt such that

one gains a perspective on things instead of just learning
facts. This chapter encourages you to develop one. In addition, we
present a few sites that can help you with your civics.
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

5.1 Geography

GeoHive
www.geohive.com

We’ll let the page spell

out what it’s about:
“GeoHive is a site with
geopolitical data, sta-
tistics on the human
population, Earth and
more. The main kind
of data you can find Population figures galore!
here is population sta-
tistics of regions, countries, provinces and cities. Next to that
there are some statistics on economic factors like wealth, infra-
structure; statistics on natural phenomena; and even more.”

You might be a little befuddled when you see all the links
pointing to “xist.org”: the idea is, geohive.com and xist.org are the
same site. Click “Home” at the top right and you’ll get to
www.xist.org—which will be the same page you were looking at.

At first glance, the site creators may seem obsessed with popu-
lation figures, but worry not: there’s a lot of ready access to infor-
mation at this site.

The links you’ll be clicking are Global Data, Country Data,

and Charts, which are respectively Global, by Country, and
Charts on the left pane.

Under Global, you’ll see almost too many links: “Overview of

all countries,” “Development status,” “Human development
index,” “Surface area,” “Population density,” an obscene number
of links under “Population,” yearly population charts for every sin-
gle country, and agriculture and economy figures. You’ll be refer-
ring to this section primarily for figures, as you’ve gathered. What

90 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

was the population of Botswana in 1950? What countries are the

largest, surface-area wise? How much rice was produced in Sierra
Leone in 1995? We can bet our last rupee you won’t need that last
figure, of course, but what we’re trying to say is that figures do say
something, and that therefore, you can get a sort of bird’s-eye view
of the stuff the world is made of.

This section can also be seen as a wealth of trivia: you look at

the projected population figures for 2050, and you see the follow-
ing: India at the top with 1.5 billion, China next, the US third, and
Pakistan fourth. And, for example, where are the wealthiest peo-
ple? You have a link called “Gross National Income (total and per
capita) for most countries for 2000 and 2003.”

The second way of getting into this site is via the Country
Data link. You have every country listed, in alphabetical order.
You’ll get the vital stats for each country—area, population, cap-
ital, regions, and such.

Now click “Mali” and you’ll find “Tombouctou,” and that its
population is about a lakh. That’s really Timbuktu in disguise. It
just so happened we knew where the place was (in Mali), that’s
why we got to it. And that’s the big, big problem with the site:
there’s no search box anywhere. At least we couldn’t find one.

Under the Charts section, you’ll find not too many—but those
that are there are interesting. “Largest countries 1950—2050,” “Age
structure graph”, and some more along those lines.

So this one is for

❍ Trivia: explore the site and find interesting figures.
❍ Extrapolations to 2050 in several cases, which can be interesting.
❍ Perspectives: India is 55 Australias in terms of people.
❍ Authority: Most figures are from The World Factbook 2005-2006, CIA.
The CIA as in Central Intelligence Agency. So you can quote
from this page.

FAST TRACK 91
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Atlapedia online
www.atlapedia.com

Lots of stats again, but also

full-colour physical and
political maps. You’ll see
three big buttons—Countries
A to Z, World Maps, and
Class Resources. Don’t
believe that last one—it’s just
a few maps.

Click on one of these Stats again…

three, and at the bottom of
the page, you’ll find the search link. You can search this way, as
the site says:

“Countries A-Z Search

Enter word(s). You can connect terms with “and” and “or”
Example: Russia or Ukraine and Yeltsin
Example: Afghanistan and literate and population
Example: Kenya and life and expectancy”

So what do these searches bring up? Actually, they all bring up

country pages. So in the description of the Comoros, the terms
“Kenya,” “life,” and “expectancy” do occur, hence Comoros figures
in the search results. To reiterate, that’s all you get—country pages.

These country pages can, of course, be accessed using the

Countries A to Z link. So what’s in a typical country page? Quite a bit.

For as relatively unknown a country as the Comoros, you get

all the following: its location and geography, climate, ethnic
groups, religions, languages, some history, what the economy
runs on, what the armed forces are composed of, and more. (The
Comoros army had around 500 soldiers, last count. They’re peace-
loving out there.)

92 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

So what’s this site for? Well, simply for a decent “summary” of

each and every country there is. Very useful. There are high-res
maps as well, just in case.

And yes, we forgot: there’s a glossary as well, for terms such as

NATO and ASEAN, for when memory doesn’t serve.

The World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

This is the big daddy of all

the country reference sites
you’ll find. Prominent on
the page is a drop-down
from where you select a
country. You’ll get practi-
cally all the information
there is to be had for that
country or region (“region”
here refers to such things as
“Indian Ocean,” The World Factbook: indispensable!
“Antarctica,” and so forth).

So here’s a brief listing of what you’ll get when you choose a

country, say Antigua and Barbuda:

❍ A short background
❍ An extended list of geographical specifics, such as coastline
❍ A summary of the people, such as ethnicity and per capita
income
❍ Extended details about the government
❍ An overview, followed by figures, of the economy
❍ Communications and Transportation information
❍ Details about the military
❍ and finally, “Transnational issues,” which, in this case,
includes the fact that Antigua and Barbuda was considered a
minor trans-shipment point for narcotics bound for the US
and Europe

FAST TRACK 93
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

This is just the list; when you actually look at one, you’ll find
the number of details is pretty large.

In addition to the countries and details about them, the fol-

lowing navigational aids are available:

❍ A maps section
❍ Notes and Definitions, to help you understand the country sta-
tistics better
❍ The Rank Order pages, where you get details already sorted—if
you choose “HIV/AIDS deaths,” you’ll get a list for that in
descending order of numbers. There are many, many sorted
pages, including Internet users, airports, and so on.

And you wouldn’t believe it—you can download the entire

Factbook for free! It’s just a 40 MB download—well worth it for the
amount of information you get.

There also happens to be a search feature, which you can use

to find, for example, where Timbuktu is. Type in the name and
you’ll instantly find… nothing. You’ll need to type in
“Tombouctou.” And if you didn’t know the official name, there’s
no way to find out it’s in Mali. Actually, the search isn’t very good—
no results for “Canada per capita” and “Canada flag” either.

Country Studies
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

There aren’t too many links on the main page; in fact, you’ll use,
apart from the search box, just two links—Country Studies and
Country Profiles. The latter are condensed but more updated ver-
sions of the former, so let’s stick to Country Studies.

Just choose a country from the drop-down, say Austria. You’ll

get a long chapter on history, a chapter on “The Society and
its Environment,” then Economy, Government, and
National Security.

94 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

Of interest here is “The Society and its Environment.” Here,

you get a main section called just Geography, which contains a
summary of sorts. Then comes Landform Regions, Human
Geography, Climate, and Ecological Concerns. Here’s an excerpt
from the last, to give you an idea as to exactly how detailed the
information is.

“The Alps serve as a

watershed for Europe’s
three major kinds of
weather systems that
influence Austrian weath-
er. The Atlantic maritime
climate from the north-
west is characterized by
low pressure fronts, mild
air from the Gulf Stream,
and precipitation. It has Information by country—all neat and nice
the greatest influence on
the northern slopes of the Alps, the Northern Alpine Foreland, and the
Danube Valley. The continental climate is characterized by low-pressure
fronts with precipitation in summer and high-pressure systems with cold
and dry air in winter. It affects mainly eastern Austria. Mediterranean
high-pressure systems from the south are characterized by few clouds and
warm air, and they influence the weather of the southern slopes of the Alps
and that of the south-eastern Alpine Foreland, making them the most tem-
perate part of Austria.”

“Demography” might interest the geography student as well,

and there are several sections under the main Demography
section.

And that’s pretty much it—Country Studies, under which is to

be found a lot of info in various categories. The geography student
is likely to be interested in two or three sections per country,
including the Geography section, of course.

FAST TRACK 95
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

One World—Nations Online

www.nationsonline. org/oneworld/

Pretty site. There’s a good

photograph on the main
page, which gave us an
idea it would be a nice
site. Actually, it’s skimpy
on info, and most of the
useful content is from
external sites.

In addition to the
usual stuff, there’s Country-wise information—again
country-wise (latest)
news at the right of the main page.

Navigating through to countries is simple enough, and so we

navigated to Rwanda. Here’s the opening paragraph, which pretty
much explains things:

“A virtual guide to ‘the land of a thousand hills’. Get an overview of

Rwandan art, culture, people, environment, geography, history, economy
and government.

“Beside a country profile with facts and figures, this page offers maps,
statistics, weather information, and links to sources that provide you with
information about this Central African nation: official Web sites of
Rwanda, addresses of Rwandan and foreign embassies, domestic airlines,
local news, city and country guides with travel and tourism information
about accommodation, tourist attractions, events and more.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like course material, but it’s all
fun to read. For example, there’s an entire site devoted to the
genocide in Rwanda a few years ago, and the Rwanda page links
to that site, too.

96 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

Different countries have varying amounts of information—for

example, there are more links for India than for Rwanda. But com-
mon to all pages is the Summary.

Apart from this, at the left, you have links to World

Population, Cities of the world, News, Country Codes, Maps, Flags,
Languages, and Airlines & Airports. Besides, you can search the
site using the box at the top left.

We’d recommend this one if you’re looking for a broader

understanding of countries, beyond the facts and figures.

Geography World
http://members.aol.com/bowermanb/101.html

There’s plenty of geog-

raphy-related stuff at
this page. And we
mean plenty. Take a
look at the categories:
Africa, Earthquakes,
Time / Calendars,
Agriculture / Farming,
Ecosystems / Biomes,
Homework Help, Latin
Almost too much info!
America, Ancient
Culture, Erosion / Weathering, Antarctica / the Arctic, Europe,
Maps / Globes / Skills, Asia, Flags, Volcanoes, Australia / Oceania,
Weather / Climate, Natural Resources / Energy, What Is
Geography?, Conservation / Environment, Population, Earth’s
Land, Geography News / Info, World Culture, Earth’s Water,
World Geography, GIS / GPS, Tectonics / Continental Drift.

The idea is, you can expect tons of links at each of these cat-
egories! You wouldn’t believe it, but just under “Tectonics /
Continental Drift,” there are 33 links. If you don’t find every-
thing you ever, ever wanted to know about plate tectonics from

FAST TRACK 97
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

these pages, we’ll give you your money back for this issue!

Anyway, you’ve also got to note that most of these are external
links, so some are, of course, broken.

Apart from this, there’s also “Geography Games, Puzzles,

Quizzes, Trivia.” This has about 30 links. Some aan be fun, some not
so much, and some are too basic—you’ll have to click and pick.

Navigating this
site is so easy, it would
be embarrassing for us
to explain what else is
on the page. Just one
problem: some of the
links are named
wrong. Anyway, this is
the best site we found
on the Net for geogra-
phy students—do take
This site seems pretty random
a look!

World Geography
www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873835.html

Apart from the main menu in the middle of the page, which con-
tains seemingly random links, you also get “Everest Almanac,” a
World Atlas, a Distance Calculator, and other such miscellaneous
links. Now in the main menu are the following:

❍ The Continents: Click on any continent for more information.

This includes Geology and Geography, Climate, Peoples,
Economy, and more.
❍ Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics Theory: The theory
explained, with a map, and with external links where applica-
ble.
❍ The world’s 14 highest mountain peaks: Again a detailed list,
and a couple of external links.

98 FAST TRACK
THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

And the entire section list goes:

❍ The Continents
❍ World Land Areas and Elevations
❍ Polar Regions
❍ Icebergs in the Northern Hemisphere: FAQ
❍ Highest Mountain Peaks of the World
❍ Climbing the Seven Summits
❍ Mortals on Mount Olympus: A History of Climbing Everest
❍ Oceans and Seas
❍ Large Lakes of the World
❍ Principal Rivers of the World
❍ Large Islands of the World
❍ Highest Waterfalls of the World
❍ Interesting Caves and Caverns of the World
❍ Principal Deserts of the World
❍ Volcanoes of the World
❍ Earthquakes
❍ Latitude and Longitude of World Cities
❍ Explorations

As you might expect, some sections are much longer than others.

So what might you go to this site for? Not so much for seeking
information as for browsing interesting stuff, possibly supple-
menting your regular study.

Ilike2learn.com
www.ilike2learn.com/
ilike2learn/geography.asp

Don’t be put off by the

comic sans right at the top!
Actually, comic sans is used
throughout the pages, and
you’ll have to get used to it…

Anyway, the site, as you’ll

see, is a bunch of Flash
quizzes. So you click on For the kids… almost

FAST TRACK 99
 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

“Central Africa Map Quiz” and you’ll get a map of Central Africa,
and you’re asked: “Where is Sudan?” Click the correct country and
you get—hold your breath—five points!

Well, that wasn’t to undermine the usefulness of this little

site. There are map quizzes for mountains, lakes, rivers, and more,
besides countries. You’ll see “Belmopan is the capital of…” next to
a map, and you’re asked to click the correct country. And so on.
Probably useful for your first few lessons on political geography—
not much more.

5.2 Civics

Guide To Indian Laws

www.llrx.com/features/indian.htm

On a negative
note, there are
some broken links
on this page. But
you didn’t expect
government sites
to always be opera-
tional, did you? In
any case, this page
itself is a gentle
introduction to Some basic information, and some links
the Constitution of
India, the Union Executive, and so forth. It covers, in brief, such
topics as the Independence of the Judiciary from the Executive,
and Fundamental Rights and Duties.

There are several links on the page, and you’d be well advised
to click on at least some of them. For example, there are links to
the Election Commission and to the Reserve Bank of India.

100 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

Directory of official Web sites of the Government of India

http://goidirectory.nic.in/

“A one-point source to know all about Indian Government Web

sites at all levels and from all sectors,” the site says about itself. It’s
pretty good, since most of the links seem to work.
On the page are the following links:

❍ Executive: President of India, Central Government (ministries),

and more
❍ Legislature
❍ Judiciary
❍ States and Union Territories

These are the

main links you’ll
want to follow; visit
the page and you’ll
find even more, such
as the link to
“Scientific &
Research,” which lists
out the Web sites of a A one-stop bookmark
ton of scientific and
research bodies in India. All the links may not work, however, but
there’s enough to choose from.

Now under “States & Union territories,” you get a link to the
governmental organisations in each and every state. Let’s take a
look at the first state, Andhra Pradesh. The links presented are the
following…

Actually, there are tons of links, so we can’t talk about them

all. But under “Government Departments” figures the Transport
Department; under “Corporations” figures a site as obscure as that
of the Andhra Pradesh State Warehousing Corporation; and so on.
Many of the sites listed here have had their domains expired,

FAST TRACK 101

 V GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

including the one we just mentioned, but many do work as well—

for example, the link to the Agriculture Department of Andhra
Pradesh.

This is one must-have bookmark for the civics student. At the

time of this writing, it was last updated two days ago!

Law Library of Congress

www.loc.gov/law/guide/india.html

Surprisingly, there’s a Library of Congress site that hosts links on

Indian laws and more! At this well-maintained page, you’ll find
links to the Constitution, various branches of the Executive,
Judicial departments, Legislative departments, and then a section
called “Legal Rights and Miscellaneous.”

Under that last heading are links to several Indian and

American sites on law in India. Just one of the links—to
findlaw.com—gives you links such as the following:

❍ CIA—The World Factbook Features facts and statistics on the

geography, people, government, economy, communications,
transportation, mil-
itary and transna-
tional issues.
❍ ForInt Country Page
From Washburn
Law School.
❍ AccountAid India
Forms and basic
information on
F o r e i g n
Contribution
Regulation Act
(FCRA). Relevant for
NGOs, non-profits,
and grant-making
agencies.
Linkmania… indispensable!

102 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVICS V

❍ Caclub India Features tax law information and index of links.

❍ Corpmen Features Indian statutes.

Most of the links here work—and take you to all kinds of sites.
In fact, the only problem we could find with the site we’re talking
about is that there are too many links, and links to links! But just
bookmark this site and you’ve got almost everything there is to be
known about India as a political entity—there’s even a link to as
intangible a thing as Human Rights in India. (The link works, and
is depressing.)

FAST TRACK 103

 THE STUDENT'S WEB

104 FAST TRACK

Mathematics

M athematics is probably the toughest subject for any high-

school student, dunce or genius. Here’s a listing and review of
some of the good maths sites on the Internet. There’s mention of
one page where you can find more links. Use some of or all these
sites to amply supplement your textbook and your classwork.
 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

6.1 Algebra Review in Ten Lessons

http://math.uakron.edu/%7Edpstory/mpt_home.html

As far as the page

goes, this site is
pretty simple: 10
PDFs for you to
download. What
we’ll talk about
here is the content
of some of those.

What is most
important (and valu- Prof Story’s PDFs on algebra
able) about Prof D P Story’s course (or “review”) on algebra is the
depth of understanding of the fundamentals it provides. Consider
this, for example, from the first chapter:

“In this lesson, we review some very basic ideas and terminology
of the so-called Real Number System. Do not take this first lesson
lightly, your knowledge of the real number system and its properties
is key to your understanding why certain algebraic manipulations
are permissible, and why others are not. (When you are manipulat-
ing algebraic quantities, you are, in fact, manipulating numbers.)”

So you’d wonder why you need to know about the number sys-
tem when learning algebra, and Story explains above—adding not
to take it lightly. That should give you an idea about how compre-
hensive the course is.

Then, consider this snippet from chapter 2, something others

would probably just skip, assuming the reader has gathered it
from the preceding text:

“Terminology: The symbol a^k is called a power of a. We say that

a^k has a base of a and that k is the exponent of the power of a.”

106 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

Everything is spelt out neat and nice, just like this. In addition,
every definition is followed by a solid explanatory example.

Short quizzes pepper the material throughout. These help

tremendously in nailing concepts into your head. The language is
lucid and refreshingly non-text-bookish throughout, as you’ll
notice right upon first look.

Attention is called to important points using appropriate tech-

niques. For example, while talking about (1 / (x^-2 + y^-2) = x^2 +
y^2 not being true, you’ll see the following:

“The last point is only valid for expressions involving multipli-

cation and/or division. For example, the following shall be referred
to as an algebraic blunder!”

This is followed by “NOT TRUE” in bold. Why we mention this

is to get across the point of the sheer usability of this text. As yet
another example, the PDFs are colour-coded for good readability.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5, which you’ll probably find the most use-

ful, are basic algebra parts 1 and 2 followed by Expansion.
Chapters 6 and 7 deal with polynomials and equations respective-
ly. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 are more advanced.

If you can’t follow what’s going on in class, or if you need

assistance with a particular type of problem, browse through the
chapters and you’re sure to find a lucid explanation. Story takes
pains to explain each and every step of what’s going on, which
cannot be said about many textbooks (or professors). Highly rec-
ommended if you want a serious understanding of basic, and
even not-so-basic algebra.

FAST TRACK 107

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

6.2 Webmath.com

www.webmath.org
The site is www.webmath.org,
but it calls itself
“Webmath.com.” We don’t
know why, but the introduc-
tion goes, “Are you stuck on a
math problem? We’d like to
help you solve it.” What you get
here isn’t a primer on maths of
any sort, but, like the line says,
it’s there to help you find a Quick-jump to topics or browse Webmath
solution when you’re stuck.

Help is available in various categories, including the usual

suspects—trigonometry, calculus, algebra, and so on. There are
two ways to use the site—one is by browsing the tabs, and the other
is by “Quick Jumping” to a topic of your choice.

You can “Quick Jump” to the exact category of problem

you’re looking for, in the “Quick Jump” drop-down. For example,
if you’re thinking calculus, you can jump to Calculus—
Derivatives, Calculus—Integration, Calculus—Solved Integrals,
and Calculus—Quotient Rule.

As an example, when you jump to one of the above—say

“Calculus—Integration”—you actually get to a page where you can
type in an integral to solve! We tried this with x^2, and we got a
thoroughly well-worked-out solution. However, x^x didn’t quite
work out, but then, as the page says, “This page can show you how
to do some very basic integrals. It is not very ‘smart’ though, so do
not be surprised if it cannot do your integral. It is best at integrals
involving polynomials and trigonometric functions.”

Next, we jumped to “Geometry—Cylinders.” We got some

notes on the properties of cylinders, and then a space where you

108 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

can type in various details of the cylinder you’re working on,

and get the answers you want. Pretty basic stuff. We gather
there’s quite a mix in the “Quick Jump” sections, ranging from
simple to complex.

Now for the other way of using the site—the tabs. There happen
to be seven tabs—Math for everyone, General Math, K-8 Math,
Algebra, Plots and Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus, and
“Other stuff.” Now for a look at each of these.

Under “Math for Everyone” is the really basic stuff like figur-
ing interest, unit conversion, figuring lottery odds, and such.
Quite a small section. “General Math” is just about as simple—
you can calculate the LCM and GCD, converting decimals to frac-
tions, and so on. “K-8” math is again basic, where you can, for
example, “Get a visual on what a fraction is”: you enter a frac-
tion, and it shows a pie-chart.

“Algebra” is more like it: you have sections on Simplifying

Expressions, Complex Numbers, Word Problems, and much more.
Throughout, you type in your problem and you get a solution.
Similarly, under “Plots and Geometry,” you can type in a formula
and get a visual plot. This section is organised such that you can
not only get a “solution,” but also learn something in the process.

“Trigonometry and Calculus” is just what it says. Of particular

interest here is the “100 solved integrals.” Choose your integral,
and you get a scanned page that shows how it’s worked!

The “Other Stuff” section seems to be work in progress.

Overall, you’ll find this useful if you’re just starting off with
trigonometry, calculus, or algebra, and if you’re looking for quick
answers. If you’re looking for detailed knowledge, you’ll need to
look elsewhere.

FAST TRACK 109

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

6.3 The Math Forum @ Drexel

www.mathforum.org/dr.math/
An introduction to The Math
Forum is provided right on the
site: In 1994, the Math Forum dis-
covered a dormant project called
“Ask Prof. Maths,” where K-12 stu-
dents could send in math ques-
tions and get personal answers.
The folks at Drexel University
decided to revive the program,
using Swarthmore College math The Math Forum: indispensable!
students as “Math Doctors”—students who loved to answer ques-
tions from other students.

By 1995, the rapidly increasing volume of questions required

that new members of the staff be recruited from other colleges
around the US. By the year 2000, there had been over 300 volun-
teer “Doctors” from all corners of the globe. The service has
received a number of Internet awards.

Students submit questions to Dr. Math by filling out a Web form.

Answers are sent back by e-mail, and the best questions and answers
are gathered into a searchable archive organised by grade level (ele-
mentary, middle school, high school) and topic (exponents, infinity,
polynomials, etc.). The Forum recommends using the Dr. Math
searcher to find what you want (try keywords like Fibonacci, fractal,
or proof), and investigating the Dr. Math FAQ (topics include prime
numbers, pi, the golden ratio, Pascal’s triangle).

The scope of the site really is too much to go into here. Every
maths problem seems to have been covered! For starters, you can
ask away and get your solution e-mailed to you, like we said. Then,
you can search the forum in its entirety to find an answer to your
question. We typed in “integral pi,” and got “FAQ” answers ranging
from “Analytic Geometry: Cylindrical Coordinates” to “Ellipse and

110 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

Parabola Formulas.” Then there are all items with the words “inte-
gral” and “pi” in them, under “Items with keywords.” 206 of them.
There’s also advanced search with the usual options.

We think the best way to use the site is to browse the cate-
gories—FAQ, Formulas, Selected Answers, Elementary School,
Middle School, High School, and College & Beyond. Of interest to
you will, naturally, be the last two.

Under “High School,” for example, is a list too long to mention

here, but it includes all you’d want it to—calculus, algebra,
trigonometry, and many, many more, some of them divided into
sub-categories. Clicking “Calculus” leads to hundreds of results,
including such ones as the following:

❍ “I’m trying to find a GOOD definition for “differentiation.”

❍ Could you please explain the formal definition of a limit? I need
help specifically with finding a delta for a given epsilon and
using the epsilon-delta definition of a limit.
❍ How do Lorenz equations work?
❍ Why is “e” so important? How significant is “e” compared with
“pi”? How did it come about? How is it defined? Why is it
taught only at higher level mathematics? Are there other
numbers like “e”?

As an example of the kind of language the site uses—very stu-

dent-friendly indeed—here’s part of the answer to that last question:

“Why is e so important? Well, in a sense, e is important simply

because it has all those nice properties you’ve been studying.
Whenever you take the derivative of e^x (that’s e to the power x),
you get e^x back again. It’s the only function on Earth that will do
that. That’s pretty cool stuff.”

However good (or bad) your professor is, and however good (or
bad) your recommended textbook is, you can’t afford to miss out
on The Math Forum!

FAST TRACK 111

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

6.4 Dave’s Short Trig Course

www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/trig/
After calculus, trigonometry is one of the toughest areas of high-
school maths to master. “These notes are more of an introduction
and guide than a full course,” as it says on the site. Use it to sup-
plement your existing textbook.

A Java applet on
most pages helps
explain the rele-
vant concept.

It is indeed a
short course, and it
only covers the
basics. However, it
is worth going
The “Short Trig Course” really is short, but useful
through if you
want to understand certain concepts you didn’t understand in
class. Here, for example, you’ll find lucid proofs of why (sin A)/a =
(sin B)/b = (sin C)/c—the law of sines—and the law of cosines. There
happen to be just the right number of diagrams—not too many,
not too few.

Several sections have helpful, somewhat easy questions, along

with hints and answers.

Don’t expect too much from this site, but it will help in getting
the basics right. Students just getting exposed to trigonometry
will find it particularly useful.

112 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

6.5 Homepage of e-Calculus

www.math.uakron.edu/%7Edpstory/e-calculus.html

As in one other site main-

tained by Prof D P Story that
we’ve mentioned here, this
one, too, is nothing site-wise:
it’s a collection of PDFs.
You’ll want to download
them: they teach the subject
well! Here’s an extract from
somewhere near the begin-
ning of the course:

“Assuming that you are Prof Story (again), this time on calculus
not familiar with the techni-
cal aspects of this section, when you think about it, your knowl-
edge of velocity is limited. In terms of your own mathematical
background, there is only one type of velocity you can deal with:
Constant Velocity. To make matters worse, there is really only one
formula for dealing with velocity: the famous formula,

distance = velocity x time

“But the good news is that simple algebra is sufficient to solve

many problems involving constant velocity. The bad news is that,
based on life’s experiences, velocity is hardly ever constant! One
way around this problem is through the notion of average veloci-
ty. Even though the average velocity concept is very useful in many
different situations, it is inadequate for a deeper study of the
dynamics of motion of a particle. For this reason, we need a better
understanding of velocity.

“This requires us to move to a higher mathematical plane: The

Calculus level. It was the limit concept that enabled mathemati-
cians to move from the algebraic level to the Calculus level.”

FAST TRACK 113

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

This is a kind of introduction you’ll hardly ever find in a text-

book; you’re usually thrown straight into calculus without know-
ing why. Story’s notes help you get the whole picture.

Short quizzes pepper the material throughout. These help

tremendously in nailing concepts into your head. The language is
lucid and refreshingly non-text-bookish throughout, as you’ll
notice right upon first look.

As an example of the method of pedagogy used, consider the

following:

“You should verify in your own mind the validity of equality

(19). But the limit in (19) is also the same difference quotient you
would obtain if you were trying to calculate the derivative of sin(t)
at the particular value of t = x—pi/2—here I have introduced a
dummy variable for clarity. Study the argument carefully to assure
your understanding.” Much better than just “Hence proved.”

If you can’t follow what’s going on in class, or if you need

assistance with a particular type of problem, browse through the
chapters and you’re sure to find a lucid explanation. Story takes
pains to explain each and every step of what’s going on, which
cannot be said about many textbooks (or professors). Highly rec-
ommended, if you want a serious understanding of basic and not-
so-basic calculus.

6.6 EqWorld

http://eqworld.ipmnet.ru/en/solutions/ode.htm

Equations, more equations, then some more equations thrown in

for good measure—that’s what you’ll find at this site. Not for the
faint of heart or head, and, indeed, probably useful only as a quick
reference for solutions to various advanced (and some not-so-
advanced) equations.

114 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

Navigation at this site is as

simple as it gets: you have
exact solutions, methods, aux-
iliary sections (including inte-
gral transforms and more),
and math forums—if you’re in
the market for equation solu-
tions, you’ll know where to go!

Under “Exact Solutions,” Want equations?

you’ll find Algebraic
Equations, Ordinary DEs, Systems of ODEs, First-Order PDEs,
Linear PDEs, Nonlinear PDEs, Systems of PDEs, Integral Equations,
and Functional Equations. Each solution is presented as a PDF, so
you’ll need to have Adobe Reader installed.

Well-known DEs are labelled: for example, y? + ay = 0 (Equation

of free oscillations).

There’s a lot more on the site, but it probably won’t interest

you. Visit the site for the solutions you need.

6.7 Euclid’s Elements

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/%7Edjoyce/java/elements/toc.html
Euclid’s Elements is the
most successful textbook
ever written. It was one of
the very first works to be
printed after the printing
press was invented, and is
second only to the Bible
in number of editions
published. It was used as
the basic text on geome- Euclid’s Elements: the definitive Web resource
try throughout the

FAST TRACK 115

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Western world for about 2,000 years. For centuries, knowledge of

at least part of Euclid’s Elements was required of all students. Not
until the 20th century did it cease to be considered something all
educated people had read!

This page isn’t just a PDF of the Elements—a Java applet helps
you through many pages, and each proposition is made clearer
under a heading called “Guide.”

If you know about the Elements, you’ll know there are 13

Books, each containing Definitions and Propositions (some con-
tain only Propositions). Here, along with all the Books, Definitions
and Propositions, you have introductory matter: about Euclid, “A
quick trip through the Elements,” references to Euclid’s Elements
on the Web, and more.

If you need to learn Euclid’s Elements, the place to head for is

here. And even if you’re not a maths student, you might find some
intellectual stimulation in the Elements—and the satisfaction of
knowing that you have your geometry fundamentals all correct.

6.8 HMC Mathematics Online Tutorial

www.math.hmc.edu/calculus/tutorials/
This is a straightforward, no-nonsense
guide to key mathematical areas—Single-
variable Calculus, Multi-variable Calculus,
Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations.
Note that the last is limited to first-order
DEs. Before jumping into calculus, there is
a primer on several things you’ll need to
know—a Review of Trigonometric,
Logarithmic, and Exponential Functions, a
review of algebra, the binomial theorem,
complex numbers, and more. These are
short, but essential. Just a regular tutorial

116 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

Then comes single-variable calculus: the chain rule, the fun-

damental theorem of calculus, integration by parts, the Second
Derivative, Taylor’s Theorem, and such.

Although the general language and presentation is like that in

most textbooks, you’ll find useful explanatory notes here and
there, like this one before the proof of the fundamental theorem
of calculus:

“We are all used to evaluating definite integrals without giving

the reason for the procedure much thought. The definite integral is
defined, however, not by our regular procedure but rather as a limit
of Riemann sums. We often view the definite integral of a function
as the area under the graph of the function between two limits. It is
not intuitively clear, then, why we proceed as we do in computing
definite integrals. The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus justifies
our procedure of evaluating an antiderivative at the upper and
lower limits of integration and taking the difference.”

Also, in the explanations and proofs, certain terms are hyper-

linked to short definitions, which appear as pop-ups.

Multi-variable calculus continues along similar lines, covering

multiple integration, parametric equations, partial differentia-
tion, and related topics.

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors, matrix algebra, the geometry of

linear transformations and more come under Linear Algebra, as
you’re probably aware. Finally, like we said, Differential Equations
covers only first-order DEs.

The text is peppered with short practice questions, albeit not

in good doses. The solutions are linked.

Finally, there’s also a link to “Math Fun Facts,” which are, as

the site says, “ideas and puzzles that will change the way you
think.” The “fun facts” are classified into “easy,” “medium,” etc.

FAST TRACK 117

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

levels. If you’re past college and don’t need to deal with tenth-
dimension accelerated Riemann space probabilities any more, this
is a fun page!

6.9 Algorithms And Complexity

www.cis.upenn.edu/%7Ewilf/AlgComp3.html

A book for you to download—no more fumbling over what’s NP-Hard

This is not a site; it’s just the download page for Algorithms and
Complexity, by Herbert S Wilf. The “algorithms” part of the book is
pretty standard, but we’re recommending the “complexity” part
of the book. Still puzzled over what NP-completeness is? Still won-
dering what “NP-hard” means? Download this book!

6.10 Online Mathematics Textbooks

www.math.gatech.edu/
~cain/textbooks/online-
books.html
Hurry! “This site is far from
comprehensive and I have con-
sidered abandoning it. Many
people, however, still seem to
find it useful, and so I shall A non-comprehensive listing of books
online

118 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

continue to maintain it for a while,” as the author of the page

says—so get the online textbooks you want here!

You’ll find the entire gamut of mathematics in these books—

graph theory, calculus, differential equations, linear algebra… in
fact, no less than 68 titles available for free.

6.11 Wolfram MathWorld

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
12,646 entries. The big
daddy of all the maths sites
there are on the Web,
Wolfram MathWorld is your
single stop for everything
maths—with a caveat: you’ll
sometimes need to wade
through incomprehensible
stuff to get to something
simple enough for you to Ah, Eric Weisstein again!
understand!

We clicked randomly and ended up at this one: “Cube Division

by Planes.” It turns out that the average number of regions into
which n randomly chosen planes divide a cube is (1/324) (2n +23) n
(n-1) (pi) +n + 6. Duh.

Well, let’s re-start on a more positive note: you can browse by

category, which leads you to sub-categories. The “leaf” category
has the number of entries next to it in brackets. So you click
“Probability and Statistics,” and you get Bayesian Analysis (1);
Descriptive Statistics (62); Moments (57); and so on.

The “Bayesian Analysis” link above is typical. You can com-

ment on the page, via a link at the top; the descriptive text fol-
lows, with hyperlinks for difficult terms. Then comes something

FAST TRACK 119

 VI MATHEMATICS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

about where it is or has been applied in the real world. And then,
there’s a “See Also” section, which, of course, links to multiple
related pages. Then come the references, and the date
last modified.

The broad categories at the site are Algebra, Applied

Mathematics, Calculus and Analysis, Discrete Mathematics,
Foundations of Mathematics, Geometry, History and Terminology,
Number Theory, Probability and Statistics, Recreational
Mathematics, and Topology. There’s also an alphabetical index of
entries, which would be difficult to use, we presume, since one
doesn’t know the headings of all the entries!

“Interactive Entries”
takes you to animated GIFs,
“LiveGraphics3D Applets,”
and “webMathematica
Examples.” Under the second
heading, we took a look at
one entry called “Axis”; this
one gives you a simple
demonstration of what an
Stuff you can visualise at Weisstein’s site
axis is. Of course, it’s simple
enough to understand what an axis is without having to view an
applet, but what about a gyrate rhombicosidodecahedron? No, seri-
ously, that’s an object, and it doesn’t look interesting in the least,
to boot. See the image alongside to see what a barrel, a bicone, a
spiral, a homotopic, a lemon, and a spikey look like.

Coming to the “webMathematica Examples,” these are things

you can re-plot and manipulate. For example, the entry under
“logarithm” shows a log graph, and you can enter minimum and
maximum values for the axes—and you’ll get a new graph. Below
the graph is a description of the concept.

Whatever your topic, you’re dead sure to find it here. Say you
don’t understand Kepler’s Equation: head over to calculus, then to

120 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
MATHEMATICS VI

functions, and there it is. It’s that simple. Every important term in
your textbook is explained here, usually with a graph and all the
important equations.

This site is strictly for college students. High-school kids

beware: this site will make you feel like Newton on the sands of
knowledge, drilling it into your head that you don’t know much.

FAST TRACK 121

 THE STUDENT'S WEB

122 FAST TRACK

Engineering

E ngineers build nations. In fact, once you cross the boundaries

of conventional thinking, the potential is limitless. At the far
end of imagination, science fiction writers dream of planetary
and stellar engineers in our galactic future. But we will leave
exploring the educational resources for those engineers for a
future edition of Fast Track… ask your great-grandkids to keep an
eye out for the April 2157 edition!
 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

When compiling a list of engineering education resources,

we’re faced with the decision of what to include and what to
leave out. This chapter will hopefully make most happy; most,
but not all. So with apologies to all you budding engineers,
here’s a bunch of appetizers to get you started…

7.1 Engineering—The Wikipedia Entries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Engineering

Engineering is huge. To give a brief overview of areas that engi-

neering covers
can take up an
entire Fast Track
in itself!
Thankfully, we
don’t need to
do that. The
Wikipedia
entries are
more than
comprehensive.
You have two
resources on Wikipedia’s Engineering entries are well-hyperlinked
Wikipedia: the
Engineering article, which is an overview of the entire disci-
pline, as well as the engineering portal, which is a more in-
depth look at the field and its many branches. What started out
as independent branches of study are increasingly becoming
strong in inter-disciplinary skill requirements. The portal will
be useful in helping you keep up-to-date with the entire field
while keeping you in touch with your branch of study as well.

124 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

7.2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology |

OpenCourseWare

http://ocw.mit.edu

The OpenCourseWare
(OCW) education program is
a free and open online edu-
cational resource made
available by many universi-
ties around the world. One
of the major contributors to
this program is the world-
renowned Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
(MIT). Through the OCW
program, you get access to
the teaching syllabus, lec- Take a look at the MIT syllabus and more
ture notes, and textbooks
used in many of the courses taught at MIT.

The one thing to note is that the OCW is not a distance educa-
tion program through which you can get a formal degree or cer-
tificate. You can supplement OCW with your regular work to get
high-powered insights into your area of study, or just take a course
because of your passion for the subject.

You don’t not get “formal” access to the MIT faculty through
OCW, but you do get access to archived assignments and exam
papers. You can also use the discussion groups to help you in
your studies and get feedback from members of the discussion
groups. However, don’t expect it as your due. Be courteous: the
teachers / professors who may respond will not necessarily be
from MIT, but are drawn from the worldwide teaching commu-
nity participating in the OCW project. They are devoting their
time to the project for free.

FAST TRACK 125

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Depending on the course, there may be additional technical

requirements that your PC will have to meet. For example, some
courses have video lectures that you will need compatible media
players to view (e.g. Real Player). Others maybe packed as ZIP files
which you will have to download. The download sizes can vary,
anything from 1 MB to 100 MB. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds
from the departments to keep you updated about new courses that
may be published.

7.3 OpenCourseWare Finder

http://opencontent.org/ocwfinder/

Unable to find the course you’re interested in? Not to worry. With
the OpenCourseWare finder, this is a snap. Simply select a topic of
interest, and use the filters to narrow down the selection of courses
on display. You can set filters up to a maximum of four levels.

One advantage with

the OCW Finder is that
it is not just searching
through courses from
MIT, even though pre-
dominantly engineer-
ing courses are only
from MIT. The course
content from six uni-
versities / institutions
has been indexed by
Find your Course—OpenCourseWare Finder
the OCW finder and
matching results are displayed from all these organisations.

Also check out the site homepage (http://opencontent.org) to

find out more. There is also a Google custom search engine for
searching across the OCW sites (http://opencontent.org
/googleocw).

126 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

Also, bookmark the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s page for

finding courses online (www.ocwconsortium.org/use/index.
html). There is a wealth of universities from around the world who
have published courses under the OCW program.

7.4 Engineering Formulas

eFunda
www.efunda.com

This is an online reference

site for engineers and engi-
neering students who want
a quick way to access a for-
gotten formula. It also con-
tains quick reference infor-
mation regarding many
engineering topics. It is a
paid site—about Rs 300 per
month or for students
about Rs 1,800 per year.
Currently you also get a pre-
view period when you first
eFunda—Formulas in a snap
access the site, so you can
go through the actual contents before deciding on whether you
want to become a member or not.

Formula Sites’ Index

www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Form/Formula_Index.html

This index leads to many sites (including eFunda).

FAST TRACK 127

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

7.5 Applied Mechanics (Engineering Mechanics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_mechanics

Applied Mechanics or Engineering Mechanics as it’s more com-

monly referred to as, is a foundation course for many branches of
engineering including Civil and Mechanical. The Wikipedia link
will give you a general overview of the subject including interest-
ing historical information.

Statics and Mechanics of Material

http://claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu/~jackh/eod/egr209.html

This course is somewhat older (1996-98) but is useful as a quick ref-

erence for most of the basic concepts. It also includes an overview
of presentation techniques for engineers, which is something that
is lacking in most engineering courses. Written and oral presenta-
tion of reports is an important part of both academic and profes-
sional life. Follow the “Units, Material Properties and a Math
Handbook” link to find the instructions on honing your presenta-
tion skills. Since this is somewhat old, quite a few of the links are
dead or require additional software. The downloadable files with
the MCD extension require the MathCAD software.

Self Assessment: www.lboro.ac.uk/faculty/eng/engtlsc/Eng_

Mech/tutorials/tut_index.htm

This site allows you to test yourself in several key areas of Statics
and Dynamics. Each topic has a set of multiple choice questions
which you can answer online and get feedback on your perform-
ance with the correct solutions, after you answer the questions. As
with all such self assessment systems, it is a good idea to prepare
yourself before attempting or even looking at the answers. This
will help you get a genuine idea of your grasp of the subject and
test your scoring capability.

128 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

7.6 Design Handbook

http://pergatory.mit.edu/2.007/Resources/index.html

The design handbook is a

collection of notes gathered
over the years by many pro-
fessors and teaching assis-
tants at Cambridge
University and MIT. The top-
ics covered include the
basics of design, how
machine elements are used
in machines, tips on how to
analyse and prove your Learn design basics—for machine and
machine parts
design, instructions on
engineering drawing, basic information on how to machine parts
using machine tools, instructions for making machine elements
in specific MIT labs, as well as general data on various aspects of
materials, there properties, formulas, and so on.

7.7 Basics of Computer Programming

The strength of a building’s stability is its foundation. Similarly

these foundational courses will take you to the top of the pro-
gramming elite.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-
Computer-Science/6-001Spring-2005/CourseHome/index.htm

For any geek looking for a foundational program in programming,

MIT Course 6.001—Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs is the bedrock. This course creates a solid awareness of
the programming environment and uses a version of a high level
programming language called LISP. In many ways all the popular

FAST TRACK 129

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

programming languages of today are subsets of LISP. What can be

written in one line in LISP may require 3-4 or even more lines in
other languages. Course 6.001 uses an academic version of LISP
called Scheme. The Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs is also a text book that is somewhat of a classic in soft-
ware engineering circles. The entire textbook is available online
too, so you have access to the exact same literature as MIT stu-
dents. And if you are too lazy to read but would rather watch, you
can download the video lectures of the course from here:
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures.

Online C & C++ courses

www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~rjp/Coursewww/

Any programmer worth his or her salt should understand C and

its elder brother, C++. As programming languages go, C and C++
are high level, but basic languages, that are important to gain
an understanding of how programming affects the machine. If
you are a bit overwhelmed by the MIT course you may skip that
and delve right into Professor Pooley’s course on C and C++. To
effectively use C++ you will need to know C. Both courses are
available online and divided into sections. At the end of each
section there is a “Programming Milestone”—an exercise seg-
ment that will test your grasp of the preceding chapters. After
working out the exercises you can check your answers by click-
ing on the link provided.

Introduction to Programming Using Java

http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/
This is a comprehensive course meant for the beginning pro-
grammer. It covers the majority of Java 5.0 and will quickly get
you up and running. There are exercises, quizzes and solutions
with which you can test and grade yourself. You can also down-
load a copy of the entire site for offline browsing. This is espe-
cially useful when you don’t want to stay connected to the Net
for too long.

130 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

7.8 Mechanical Engineering

FreeStudy
www.freestudy.co.uk/home.htm

This site is a free online tutorial site primarily related to

Mechanical Engineering mapped to the Engineering Council’s
(UK) exams that enables you to achieve Chartered Engineer Status.
The contents of the tutorials are pretty exhaustive, and you will
need to choose (or skip) the areas of study depending on what is of
particular relevance to you. You can view the courses by different
classes or by course modules.

Strength of Materials
http://physics.uwstout.edu/StatStr/index.htm

There are two introductory courses on this site—Strength of

Materials and Statics and Strength of Materials. The emphasis of
the course is more on the practical side and less on the theoreti-
cal, so it’s a good resource for those looking to get a greater insight
into the practical applications of various theoretical concepts. A
whole range of topics are covered, from Statics of Simple
Structures, Columns, Combined Stresses, and Mohr’s Circle. There
are class lectures, examples, problem assignments, sample tests
and their solutions and much more. Rather than treat this site as
your sole resource it is advisable to use it as a companion to your
textbook material.

Fluid Mechanics
Online Course for Civil Engineers
www.efm.leeds.ac.uk/CIVE/CIVE1400/course.html

This site contains a well-structured online course with a primary

focus on civil engineering students. There are detailed course
notes, problems with their solutions along with previous exam
papers (University of Leeds).

FAST TRACK 131

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Fluid Mechanics Help

www.onesmartclick.com/engineering/fluidmechanics.html

Contains links to many fluid mechanics related resources includ-

ing books on Amazon.com, forums and other sub-topic oriented
Web sites. As a directory of links on Fluid Mechanics this is a good
resource, however don’t be surprised if you see the occasional
dead link.

Fluid Mechanics Tutorials

www.fluidmech.net
This site is the result of one person’s fascination with fluid flow.
There are a range of topics covered from deeply mathematical to
the “purely visual and physical.” The tutorials go into some depth
and are relatively easy to understand. Apart from the Tutorials,
there is also a collection of JavaScript calculators that can be used
to calculate results for various fluid flow related problems.

7.9 Electronics Engineering

Circuit Analysis
www.et.uncc.edu/elet_info/CircuitTutor/CircuitTutor.html

This is a quick and simple site and helps you quickly get the grasp
of the basics of Circuit Analysis. There are four PDF links that
explains the different methods of analysis: Mesh, Nodal, Thevenin
& Norton, and Load Line Analysis.

www.eas.asu.edu/~holbert/ece201/recipes.html
This is another site that includes an even briefer explanation of
the various analytical methods but includes apart from the above
four: source transformation and superposition as well.

http://home.comcast.net/~stager21/Circuits.html
This is an online textbook on circuit analysis and pretty much cov-
ers the entire subject. The only drawback is that it is one continu-

132 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

ous page and may prove difficult to read or jump through. You can
alternatively copy the text into a word processor document and
save it to your hard disk.

Semiconductors
http://ece-www.colorado.edu/~bart/book/title.htm
This is the online version of the book Principles of Semiconductor
Devices by Zegbroeck and gives a very good introduction to semi-
conductors. The site is well organized and gives you one-click
access to many resources like examples, problems, review ques-
tions and equations. Each chapter and its sections can be reached
with a single click from the Table of Contents making it very easy
to navigate and hence, to read this book.

http://www.boin-gmbh.com/linkpage/indgui.htm
The semiconductor industry is a multi-billion dollar segment. This
collection of links not only gives you access to some basic resources
on semiconductors but also helps you understand the manufactur-
ing processes involved in the making of silicon chips. It also pro-
vides a crucial overview of the international semiconductor market
which help you understand how the marketplace works.

Computer Science and Programming

By virtue of it being the source of the Internet, the material avail-
able on the Web covering the computer science branch is exten-
sive. This collection of links is by no means complete but are the
ones we found to be specially useful.

Theory of Computation
www.cs.bu.edu/~lnd/toc/
This site is offers a collection of notes on the fundamentals of
computing that can be used as an aid or a quick reference
guide. You will need to use this site in combination with your
regular textbook but can benefit from the contribution of sev-
eral other students who have contributed to the notes in the
various sections.

FAST TRACK 133

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

7.10 Computer Organization / Architecture

http://williamstallings.com/COA5e.html

This site is a companion site to the textbook, Computer Organization

and Architecture by William Stallings. Ideally it should be used in
conjunction with your textbook but can also serve as a rough
standalone guide as well. There are extensive chapter-wise links to
various sites, additional support materials in the form of student
resources, figures, notes, PowerPoint slides, and downloadable soft-
ware. Additionally there are links to various university courses that
use this textbook, which in turn contain useful links to various
other sites on several aspects of the subject.

7.11 Free Online Training Courses

www.e-learningcenter.com/free.htm

This site offers about

nine e-learning cours-
es, from UNIX shell
programming to A+
Certification training.
Note that these cours-
es may not be so
“deep” given that all
the courses do not last
Free Online Courses
more than a few
hours. It is primarily an incentive program for their more full
fledged e-learning courses. However, the course will give you feel of
an online learning environment and you can decide for yourself
whether such an approach is suited to your personal preferences.

HP Online Classes
http://h30240.www3.hp.com/index.jsp

HP Online Classes is brought to you by none other than HP—yes,

134 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

the popular makers

of Printers and PCs.
The HP course con-
tent includes courses
on digital photogra-
phy, entertainment,
security solutions,
home office and per-
sonal interests. While
the focus of the cours-
es is largely con-
HP Online Classes—For students and non-students
sumer-oriented and as well
not strictly speaking
academic, the courses are nevertheless useful to all—students and
non-students alike. Each course is divided into multiple lessons
and delivered by e-mail. There is a mentor (teacher) who will man-
age the course and moderate discussions between students who
are participating the in the course. This site will quickly help you
grasp the basics of many software and technologies ranging from
using MS Office to things like working with PhotoShop CS2, fire-
walls and more.

Free Computer Science Video Lecture Courses

http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/2006/06/free-computer-sci-
ence-video-lecture_24.html

If you are fed up with

reading and reading and
reading, switch to video
lectures! This collection
of continuously updated
links covers many, if not
all, computer science sub-
jects. Includes such sub-
jects as Data Structures,
Programming Languages,
Principles of Software Free Comp Science Video Lectures

FAST TRACK 135

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Engineering, Computer Architecture, and more. Each course may

have one or more links leading to the video lectures hosted at that
educational institutions’ own servers.

Free Computer Books, Tutorials and Lecture Notes

http://freecomputerbooks.com/

This collection of computer books, tutorials and lecture notes is

exhaustive. There is study material covering at least eight cate-
gories of computer science topics and in addition you have links to
free technology and IT related print magazine sites, additional IT
reference sites and other books sites. Many of the books have mul-
tiple listings as they are available in more than one location on
the Web. This is helpful if the main site goes down and you can
then quickly jump to a ‘mirror’ site and get the book. You can
either browse through the categories and drill down to find your
book or you can search through the entire collection to find some-
thing which will fit your requirements.

Cryptography
www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06wi/

This is the public archive of a course on Crytography conducted at

the University of Washington’s—Computer Science and
Engineering department. For those of you involved in ethical hack-
ing, security or just cryptography—this course can provide a fillip
to your regular studies. The entire course is available online in a
set of 8 assignments as downloadable PDFs. When you finish each
assignment you can download the answers/solution documents
(PDT, PTT and/or txt) and compare your performance and rate
yourself.

Stanford Computer Science Education Library

http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/

This is an online Computer Science library of Stanford University,

and contains links to PDF books, video, and other material dealing

136 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

with basic programming concepts. Useful for reference and stud-

ies as well, any computer science student or programmer should
make it a must to review the material on this site and update any
gaps in your knowledge.

Free Tech Books

www.freetechbooks.com
Free Tech Books is another online collection of various books and
lecture notes related to various topics within computer science
and engineering. There are hundreds of books on various topics
divided into: Computer Science, Related Fields (like Math etc),
Operating System books, Programming/Scripting books and more.
The site is well organised and all the books are either download-
able or you have full free access to their HTML versions on the par-
ent site. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed to stay updated.

7.12 Electrical Engineering

Electronic Components
http://ourworld.cs.com/gknott5413/

This introduction to electronics is both for beginners as well as

intermediate students. The site provides basic information on all
the concepts and components used in electronics and will work as
a quick reference guide which you can use to refresh your memo-
ry from time to time.

http://science-ebooks.com/electronics/table_of_contents.htm
This site offers a more comprehensive introductory text but deals
with the basics of electrical and electronics theory and practice
including discussions on basics like matter and electricity, ohm’s
law to advanced topics like semi conductor manufacturing. Most
of the chapters have both a text portion as well as simulated ani-
mation of many electrical phenomena which aids in understand-
ing the concepts. One additional feature is that the text is avail-
able as a download in either PDF e-Book form or as an audio book.

FAST TRACK 137

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

http://williamson-labs.com/
This site has many tutorials but more from a hobbyist and electri-
cal/electronics enthusiast’s point of view than on the basis of any
rigid academic syllabus. Of course, there will not be much differ-
ence in the conceptual treatment but the instruction style is more
informal and conversational plus there are tons of animations
that make understanding much easier.

Operational Amplifiers
www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/Study_subweb/Ugrad/coursenotes/CS1
231/tutorials/index.html

If you are having trouble getting a grasp of amplifiers, this collec-

tion of tutorial and notes will give you some additional insight
into operational amplifiers. The tutorials are interactive and
demonstrative, and take you through the basics of operational
amplifiers, non inverting amplifiers, the ideal op-amp, and real
op-amps. The interactive tutorials are Java-based and the well-
designed layout enables you to navigate through the pages with
ease. There is also a PDF download explaining how to use and
understand the interactive tutorials and how to run the various
simulations. Each tutorial also has multiple quiz questions which
you can answer and then click on the “Reveal Answer” button to
get the correct answer and do a self-check.

7.13 Computer Engineering

Operating Systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system

Operating systems is a huge and complex subject. This Wikipedia

entry summarises and gives you a high-level overview of what an
operating system is and what it does.

http://williamstallings.com/OS4e.html
This is another list of resources from William Stallings on operat-

138 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ENGINEERING VII

ing systems and is a companion to the text book Operating Systems,

Fourth Edition. While you will get maximum benefit by using the
site in conjunction with the book, it is useful if you are looking for
more information on any particular area of the operating system.

There are many links to UNIX and Windows resources as well

as a student resource site, PDF downloads of relevant excerpts
from the book, and much more. There are also links to many uni-
versity courses that use the text book in their teaching.

http://physinfo.ulb.ac.be/cit_courseware/opsys/ostart.htm
This is an introductory free course on operating systems and will
help you quickly understand what an operating system is and
what it does, do basic tasks in UNIX (Linux) or Windows, under-
stand what is meant by process, scheduling, file management,
memory, differentiate between a thread and a process, and much
more. The course is largely in a question and answer form which
makes it very easy to read and understand. There are also some
basic assignments and test which you can take to test your under-
standing of the subject

Microcontrollers and Microprocessors

http://mic.unn.ac.uk/miclearning/modules/micros/ch1/micro01n
otes.html

This is a basic introduction to Microcontrollers and

Microprocessors. It gives you the basic history of microprocessors,
the types of memory, digital I/O, and what a microcontroller is.
This short course will quickly get you up to speed on what a micro-
controller is and help you get a quick overview on the subject.

Object Oriented Programming

http://www.aonaware.com/OOP1.htm
The object oriented programming model is what drives all quality
software development in today’s world. This course is a brief look
into OOP and explains the difference between Objects, Classes,
and Inheritance.

FAST TRACK 139

 VII ENGINEERING
THE STUDENT’S WEB

http://homepages.north.londonmet.ac.uk/~chalkp/proj/ootu-
tor/oopconcepts.html
This site, too, teaches OOP, but goes on to include the advanced
topics: encapsulation and polymorphism as well. In addition,
there are tests on each of the concepts that will further help you
understand the concepts.

http://homepages.north.londonmet.ac.uk/~chalkp/proj/ootu-
tor/oopdesign.html
Once you’ve got a handle on OOP the next obvious logical step is
to perfect your OOP Design. This site shows you how. It teaches you
both UML as well as graphical notation and also has a test to eval-
uate your understand on using both these design notation for-
mats.

140 FAST TRACK

Commerce

C ommerce is a mix of theoretical and practical subjects.

Accounts, taxation and statistics are practical, whereas other
subjects such as economics, business organisation and
management are theoretical in nature. Most of the information
available on the Web is either in the form of news or research
journals. Besides reference books, online libraries like
www.questia.com allow you to view books online, but for the
price of a subscription fee. Let’s take a look at what commerce
students can use online...
 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

8.1 Accountancy

Though known by different names in various countries, the basic

function of Accountancy remains the same. What people call a
Certified Public Accountant in the US is called a Chartered
Accountant in our nation. Accountancy is one subject that needs a
very clear understanding of the basics, or else you’ll never get it
right. Here are a few sites that will help you do just that.

8.1.1 Principles of Accounting

http://www.principlesofaccounting.com

As the name suggests, the site offers content to learn more about
principles of accounting
for Financial Accounting
and Managerial account-
ing. It’s like a complete
online textbook with a
chapter for each account-
ing principle.

Just click on the

chapter that interests
you—you will find it easy The site is simple enough to navigate...
because the site uses
actual Accounts to illus-
trate the changes taking
place at the elementary
level.

Self-study links are

provided so that you can
check your progress.
There are ways you can
test yourself—fill in the ...and you’ll find a lot of practice problems
blanks, multiple choice and checklists with key terms, etc. Let’s
say you want to learn about Inventory (Chapter 8 on the site) and

142 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

you click on the chapter number. While reading the chapter if you
want to test your skills, just click on Goal achievement, Fill in the
blanks, Multiple choices or problems.

The language used on the site is easy to understand, and the self
study material is objective in nature, so you won’t get bored. It’s
true that the site uses mostly US-based theory for accounting prin-
ciples and standards, but it’s pretty close to what we learn here.

If you want to know how to balance a sheet, a picture of an

actual Balance sheet is provided, which makes it easier for you to
understand what’s being taught. Similarly, different accounting
concepts relating to Financial Accounting and Management
Accounting are discussed separately in the chapters.

Another noteworthy thing about this site is the Supplements

link, which has an Index Search option with a chapter-wise
Glossary of terms by alphabets and chapters. The checklist is a
handy tool. Check the items which are likely to be important for
your exams or syllabus and chapter- and topic-wise problems are
listed for testing the ability to solve them. Also, the key terms and
definitions are listed below the checklist items listed. You can read
and then click on any term, say “Dividends”, and you’ll get go to
the page that tells you everything you need to know about divi-
dends. This is a good Web site for practising accounting principles,
and getting your basics right.

Excerpts

Current Liabilities

CURRENT LIABILITIES: Existing obligations that are due to be satisfied

in the near term, and include amounts like accounts payable, salaries,
utilities, taxes, short-term loans, and so forth make up the current liabil-
ities section. This casual definition is inadequate for all situations, so
accountants have developed a very specific definition to deal with more
issues: current liabilities are debts that are due to be paid within one

FAST TRACK 143

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

year or the operating cycle, whichever is longer; further, such obligations

will typically involve the use of current assets, the creation of another cur-
rent liability, or the providing of some service. This enhanced definition
is expansive enough to capture less obvious obligations pertaining to
items like customer prepayments, amounts collected for and payable to
third parties, the portion of long-term debt due within one year or the
operating cycle (whichever is longer), accrued liabilities for expenses
incurred but not yet paid, and contingent liabilities. However, the defi-
nition is not meant to include amounts not yet “incurred.” For example,
salary to be earned by employees next year is not a current liability (this
year) because it has yet to be “incurred.”

THE OPERATING CYCLE: Remember that the operating cycle is the

length of time it takes to turn cash back into cash. That is, a business starts
with cash, buys inventory, sells goods, and eventually collects the sales pro-
ceeds in cash. The length of time it takes to do this is the operating cycle.
Take careful note of how the operating cycle is included in the above defi-
nition of current liabilities: “one year or the operating cycle, whichever is
longer.” For most businesses, the operating cycle is less than one year, but
not always. A furniture manufacturer may have to buy and cure wood
before it can be processed into a quality product. This could cause the oper-
ating cycle to go beyond one year. If that is the case, then current liabili-
ties might include obligations due in more than one year.

8.1.2 Future Accountant

http://www.futureaccountant.com

Future Accountant is a site with a snazzy name which has infor-

mation on how to make a mark as a CA (Chartered Accountant),
CWA (Cost and Works Accountant) and CS (Company Secretary)
with a step by step approach of achieving them. It’s an Indian site
run anonymously by the group Krishbhavara.

The first part consists of the Almanac—basic information

about various options in Accounting itself. For prospective begin-
ners, CA/CS/CWA—Foundation, Inter and Final students; Almanac
information about the attributes of the profession, exam dates

144 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

and even time is quoted!

Interestingly, each level
has its own FAQs and
quite lucidly written
responses. That section
also includes informa-
tion from registration
for professional account-
ing courses to various
other topics such as lost
mark sheets are covered Future Accountant—all for Indians
in this Almanac/Information section.

The section “Academic content” is filled with information on

what is taught at the Higher Secondary and college level. It feels
like the textbooks are filtered and simplified. The academic con-
tent available is divided into Financial and Cost and
Management Accounting. Under Financial Accounting, five
major topics are covered—Basic Accounting Process, Bank
Reconciliation Statement, Final Accounts, Consignment
Accounts and Partnership Accounts.

Each topic of Accounting is explained right from basic defini-

tion to its application by illustrations. Concepts (like Capital,
Profit, Loss, Drawings, Debtors, Creditors, etc.), are explained
using real-sounding examples of a people and problems. Journal
entries of the transactions are also illustrated thusly, to provide a
better understanding of the affects of each entry on an account.

The site explains subjects in simple and lucid language using

illustrations appropriately. It’s very useful for beginners or inter-
mediate students as a quick reference guide. You can enrol as a
student to gain access to the Online Classes, which at present,
includes only a few topics. This site is a good source for Indian stu-
dents who want a simple and easy reference over and above their
regular curriculum.

FAST TRACK 145

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Excerpts

Does Accounting Start with writing the Journal?

Because we had been learning the fundamental concepts we started with

learning what a journal is and how the ledger is derived. But if you have
to design an accounting system, then you should start somewhere else. It
would not be like you start writing the journal entry and then create what-
ever new ledger accounts you come across always.

We Prepare the List of Ledger Accounts First

What we do first is think of all the ledger accounts that are to be main-
tained within the organisational accounting system. Why? Remember,
the basic purpose of accounting—Derivation of information. The more
information we need, the more accounting heads we have to maintain
(or the more the number of elements into which we have to divide the
organisational accounting). Therefore based on the organisational infor-
mation needs, one has to decide on the various accounting heads that are
to be maintained.

Use the accounts within the list of ledger accounts only

Then at the time of recording the transactions i.e. writing down the jour-
nal, only these accounting heads are to be considered to assess the two ele-
ments affected by the transaction.

Example
Say for example, if the organisation thinks that it does not need too much
detail about all the expenses relating to the office like, office rent, tele-
phone, electricity, maintenance etc., it can create one account for this say
by name “Office Expenses” and use it whenever any of these expenses are
incurred. When office rent is paid in cash, the elements/account heads that
are affected are “Cash a/c” and “Office Expenses a/c”; similarly when office
telephone charges are paid by a cheque, the elements/account heads that
are affected are “Bank a/c” and “Office Expenses a/c”.

But if the organisation has decided that it needs this information sep-
arately then they create different accounts for these like “Office Rent a/c”,

146 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

“Office Telephone Charges a/c”, “Office Electricity Charges a/c”, etc., and
these accounts will be taken into consideration while dealing with the
transaction, i.e. when office rent is paid in cash, the elements/account heads
that are affected are “Cash a/c” and “Office Rent a/c”; similarly when office
telephone charges are paid by a cheque, the elements/account heads that
are affected are “Bank a/c” and “Office Telephone Charges “.

8.2 Taxation
Tax Laws and rules as laid by the Government are taught at col-
leges. If you’re looking for something that will help you beyond
your textbooks, the best site we found was a government site—
http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in.

Go to the “Tax Law and Rules” link and you will find informa-
tion on Income Tax, Wealth Tax, Gift Tax, et al. Anyone can refer to
these documents, and students should browse through them for
more details about a particular section or rule. The only problem is
that the content is the actual Law and Rules that the government
has set, so be prepared for a lot of legal jargon and tax parlance. If
you’re studying taxation at an advanced level, this is the easiest
way to get access to all the official material that you need.

8.2.1 IndLaw.com—Income and Direct Taxes

http://incometax.indlaw.com/
Income and Direct Taxes curriculum is taught from the Acts laid
down by the Government. All the acts, rules, notifications, cir-
culars and norms are mentioned on this site. Out of them, only
certain sections and sub-sections from the Acts and Rules are
taught at college level.

On the home page, you will find the latest changes or amend-
ments in the Income and Direct Tax laws, so make sure to keep
yourself updated. A lot of the content requires you to login, and a
subscription will set a student back by Rs 2,200 for 150 hours of
usage. If you can afford this, it’s a good resource. After subscrib-
ing, you get access to Acts, Rules, Notifications, etc. The 2007

FAST TRACK 147

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Budget is right at the top

of the news page,
because it directly affects
Income and Direct Tax.

The site has a

“Searching Case Law by
legislation” feature
which will help you
study case laws with
actual legislations, to Know thy taxes
give you a better under-
standing of the law or a particular clause.

The Income Tax Act is available as a quick reference, and all

Income Tax forms, Challans and return forms are available for
download. Students have a special section made available called
“Education”, which contains all the information you’d need to
pursue a profession as a CA or CWA.

The site a decent resource for students who want to learn

about the Income and Direct Taxes of India. Articles related to
Income Tax are also available. Those who are majoring in account-
ancy can refer to http://salestax.indlaw.com.

Excerpts

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today proposed to extend the service tax

regime while unveiling a move to double the exemption limit for small serv-
ice providers to Rs 8 lakh. It was also proposed to bring employee stock
option plans (ESOPS) under the controversial Fringe Benefit Tax, a move
that could be a dampener for stock markets as it will discourage companies
from rewarding their employees by giving shares.

The revenue loss from the hike in the exemption limit will be Rs 800
crore, Chidambaram said while presenting the budget for 2007-08, adding
he was happy to give this sum away in the interest of small service

148 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

providers and consumers. He proposed to extend the service tax to services

outsourced for mining of minerals, oil or gas, renting of immovable prop-
erty for use in commerce or business, development and supply of content for
use in telecom and advertising purposes, asset management services pro-
vided by individuals, and design services.

Service tax will also be levied on services involved in execution of a

works contract. There will also be an optional composition scheme under
which service tax will be levied at only two per cent of the total value of
the works contract. However, services provided by Resident Welfare
Associations to their members who contribute Rs 3,000 or less per month
will be exempted from paying the tax.

Service tax will also be exempted on clinical trial of new drugs and
services provided by technology business incubators. Their incubates whose
annual business turnover does not exceed Rs 50 lakh will be exempted from
the tax for the first three years.

8.2.2 India Mart—Taxation

http://finance.indiamart.com/taxation/

The site has information about payment of Income Tax, filing of

Income Tax returns, what forms to submit, different taxation
clauses, etc., and legal parlance is made a little simpler. You can
find information on Indian Tax Administration and procedures,
different taxes and duties applicable, time limit payment, etc.

Excerpts

Basically assessment is an estimation for an amount assessed while paying

Income Tax. It is a compulsory contribution that is required for the support
of a government. It is generally of the following types.

Self assessment
The assessee is required to make a self assessment and pay the tax on the
basis of the returns furnished. Any tax paid by the assessee under self
assessment is deemed to have been paid towards regular assessment.

FAST TRACK 149

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Regular assessment
On the basis of thereturn of income chargeable to tax furnished by the
assessee an intimation shall be sent to the assessee informing him about
the tax or interest payable or refundable to him.

Best judgement assessment

In a best judgement assessment the assessing officer should really base the
assessment on his best judgement i.e. he must not act dishonestly or vin-
dictively or capriciously. There are two types of judgement assessment :

Compulsory best judge-

ment assessment made by
the assessing officer in cases
of non-co-operation on the
part of the assessee or when
the assessee is in default as
regards supplying informa-
tions.

Discretionary best
judgement assessment is The IndiaMart site on taxation is quite
informative
doen even in cases where the
assessing officer is not satisfied about the correctness or the completeness
of the accounts of the assessee or where no method of accounting has been
regularly and consistently employed by the assessee

Income escaping assessment or re-assessment

If the assessing officer has reason to believe that any income chargeable to
tax has escaped assessment for any assessment year assess or reassess such
income and also nay other income chargeable to tax which has escaped
assessment and which comes to his notice in course of the proceedings or
any other allowance, as the case may be.

Precautionary assessment
Where it is not clear as to who has received the income, the assessing offi-
cer can commence proceedings against the persons to determine the ques-
tion as to who is responsible to pay the tax.

150 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

8.3 Economics

Economics is a subject any commerce student will come up

against, but is not everybody’s cup of tea. It can be fun and inter-
esting to learn, right from the basic level to advanced interna-
tional economics, and information is easily available on the Web.

8.3.1 The Library of Economics and Liberty

http://www.econlib.org/

In terms of content, this site has books, an encyclopaedia, articles,

data, topics and links regarding economics from all around the
globe. For those who wish to refer to economic books, a few full
online books from various authors including Alfred Marshall,
John Milton, etc., are available here, completely free. You can find
these books using the search function.

An encyclopaedia of articles on Economics is offered, which you

can browse through by title, author or category. You can also look
through the archives for older articles.

EconLog is a compilation of articles and insights of economics.

Here, articles and opinions on particular economic problems are
listed, making this site an invaluable library for students.

Excerpts

When watching the action

of demand and supply with
regard to a material com-
modity, we are constantly
met by the difficulty that
two things which are being
sold under the same name
in the same market, are
really not of the same quali-
ty and not of the same value Loads of free books at the Economics Library

FAST TRACK 151

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

to the purchasers. Or, if the things are really alike, they may be sold even in
the face of the keenest competition at prices which are nominally different,
because the conditions of sale are not the same: for instance, a part of the
expense or risk of delivery which is borne in the one case by the seller may
in the other be transferred to the buyer. But difficulties of this kind are
much greater in the case of labour than of material commodities: the true
price that is paid for labour often differs widely, and in ways that are not
easily traced, from that which is nominally paid.

VI.III.3
There is a preliminary difficulty as to the term “efficiency.” When it is said
that about equal earnings (or rather equal “net advantages,” see above II. IV.
2) are obtained in the long run in different occupations by persons of about
equal efficiency, the term “efficiency” must be interpreted broadly. It must
refer to general industrial efficiency, as defined above (IV. V. 1). But when ref-
erence is made to differences of earning power of different people in the same
occupation, then efficiency is to be estimated with special reference to those
particular elements of efficiency which are needed for that occupation.

8.3.2 McGraw-Hill Student Learning Centre

http://www.mhhe.com/economics/frankb/student_index.mhtml

Here you will find the book Principle of Economics by Robert H.

Frank and Ben S. Bernanke. It provides introductory and core
economic concepts for intermediate level students. The site cov-
ers almost everything you’ll come across in the standard
school/college economics syllabus. Every chapter is followed by a
chapter summary, a pre-test quiz and other exercises.

The site is invaluable for those interested in the basics, but is

perhaps not the right tool for those looking to further their knowl-
edge of economics after school.

Excerpts

Demand: The Benefit Side of the Market

This chapter provides an in-depth exploration of the demand side of the eco-

152 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

nomic market. Individual

and market demands for
particular goods and servic-
es are the result of rational
decisions by consumers that
are interested in maximiz-
ing their total utility, or sat-
isfaction, for a given level of
spending. Prices and income
play particularly important Read The Principles of Economics at the
McGraw-Hill Student Learning Centre
roles in determining con-
sumption patterns, and hence demand for goods and services. Rational deci-
sion makers will change their consumption choices when prices or incomes
change. The responsiveness of consumption choices to changes in prices and
income is reflected in the elasticity of demand. Sellers of goods and services
are particularly interested in elasticity measures, as they provide important
information about how sales (and revenues) are likely to change when the
price of a product changes.

8.3.3 AmosWEB—the Economics class portal

http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=cls&c=
dsp&crs=micro

AmosWEB is an online class portal which covers micro-economics

at the elementary level. Right from Economics basics to Factor
markets, every topic is divided into lessons.

You can refer to the courseware which is detailed and simple.

The examples refer to the economies of other countries, but will
still help you they better understand concepts. Lessons are illus-
trated and explained well.

Excerpt

Demand
The concept of demand is fundamental to the study of the market and eco-
nomics. It is the first of two sides of the market that we’ll study.

FAST TRACK 153

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

A definition:
Demand is the willingness and ability to buy a range of quantities of a
good at a range of prices, during a given time.
Three points:
❍ Willingness and ability.
❍ Range of quantities and prices.
❍ A given time period.

8.3.4 Notes of Roger A. McCain

http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/prin/txt/EcoToC.html
If you are looking for ready-made notes, your search ends here. The
site lists 39 chapters on the essential principals of economics, with
a few chapters still to be written.

The chapters that have been written, are done so as notes so

that they can be referred to while studying that particular topic.

Excerpts

Surplus-Value
So Marx addressed the question: if value is socially necessary labour
time, so that labour produces all value, why does the market award
incomes to people who do not work? His key insight was:
In a competitive capitalist economy, all commodities are priced at their
values.
In a competitive capitalist economy, labour is a commodity.
Therefore, in a competitive capitalist economy, labour is priced at its
value.

In other words: the wage paid for a labour-day would be the labour time
socially necessary to produce the Labour Day. Suppose that it takes just half
of a labour day to produce a labour day. Then workers will always be avail-
able for half a labour-day of pay, and employers, knowing this, will pay no
more than half a labour-day of wages per labour-day. Half a Labour Day is
left to the employers. It is “surplus-value” and is the source of profits, interest,
and rent. Employers (and landowners and financiers) don’t have to do any-
thing to get it—it is just “left over” after the competitive wage has been paid.

154 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

8.3.5 Springer Journals

http://www.springer.com/west/home/economics?SGWID=4-165-0-0-0

The Springer Journals have links that are useful for research level
reference about economics in today’s world. A number of journals,
textbooks, series and new titles are available for Economics. Though
more of interest to post graduate level students, it’s never a bad idea
to gain in depth knowledge, even when still in school or college.

Excerpt

Expected consumer’s surplus as an approximate welfare measure

Except for a knife-edge case of preferences, the percentage error from using
the change in expected consumer’s surplus (ECS) to approximate the will-
ingness to pay for a change in the distribution of a random price is
unbounded, in contrast to Willig’s (Am Econ Rev 66:589-597; 1976) famous
approximation result for nonrandom prices. If the change is smooth on the
space of random variables, and either the initial price is nonrandom or
state-contingent payments are possible, then the change in ECS locally
approximates the willingness to pay well. Unfortunately, this smoothness
fails in some important applications.

8.4 Statistics

Statistics is a branch of mathematics, and is treated as a practi-

cal subject in commerce in the context of its practical applica-
tion to problems.

8.4.1 Richard Lowry’s page on Vassar College USA

http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/intro.html

Richard Lowry, a professor from Vassar College, has provided the

web-world with a free and full-length inferential statistical textbook.
This textbook covers topics at the graduate or college level. Each
topic is explained with great detail and examples for better under-

FAST TRACK 155

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

standing. The site is extremely text heavy, and not exactly well
designed. Every time you click on a chapter, it opens in a new win-
dow, so even if you’re done with the current one, you will get a
new Window when you click on the next chapter. Apart from that,
a pretty good resource.

Excerpts

Correlation
Here is an introductory example of correlation, taken from the realm of edu-
cation and public affairs. If you are a college student in the United States, the
chances are that you have a recent and perhaps painful acquaintance with an
instrument known as the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT, formerly known as
Scholastic Aptitude Test), annually administered by the College Entrance
Examination Board, which purports to measure both academic achievement
at the high school level and aptitude for pursuing further academic work at
the college level. As those of you who have taken the SAT will remember very
well, the letter informing you of the results of the test can occasion either great
joy or great despair. What you probably did not realize at the time, however,
is that the letter you received also contributed to the joy or despair of the com-
missioner of education of the state in which you happened that year to be
residing.
This is because every year the College Entrance Examination Board
publicly announces the state-by-state average scores on the SAT, and every
year state education officials rejoice or squirm over the details of this
announcement, according to whether their own state averages appear near
the top of the list or near the bottom. The presumption, of course, is that
state-by-state differences in average SAT scores reflect underlying differ-
ences in the quality and effectiveness of state educational systems.

8.4.2 Elementary Statistics

http://sofia.fhda.edu/gallery/statistics/index.html

The best elementary statistics site so far! Simple yet attractive lay-
out and good usage of colour makes the site look receptive to the
user. Susan Dean and Barbara Illowsky are the authors of the cours-
es. In all, there are twelve lessons, and each of them is part of the

156 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

elementary statistics cur-

riculum that is taught in
pre-college level stan-
dards. Every lesson is
divided into sub topics,
and has simple to under-
stand language with
images and tables that
make the interface inter-
active and enjoyable. Get your basics right
Simple and easy to remember examples make the learning a snap,
and if you have the bandwidth, half hour audio/video presenta-
tions are also available! Students just beginning with Economics
should pay this site a visit.

8.4.3 HyperStat
http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/index.html

HyperStat is an online statistics textbook that covers almost all the

topics you’d want it to—from basic to advanced levels. The layout of
the site leaves much to be desired, with a column layout and Google
ads right in the centre! However, the chapters explain concepts and
topics well. You will also find a lot of references to other books and
Web sites that are helpful.

When you are overwhelmed by jargon, the site offers relief in

the form of a glossary of terms. You can also find free statistical
analysis tools, instructional demos and chapter-wise exercises
and problems.

Excerpts

Sampling Distribution

If you compute the mean of a sample of 10 numbers, the value you obtain
will not equal the population mean exactly; by chance it will be a little bit
higher or a little bit lower. If you sampled sets of 10 numbers over and over

FAST TRACK 157

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

again (computing the mean

for each set), you would find
that some sample means
come much closer to the pop-
ulation mean than others.
Some would be higher than
the population mean and
some would be lower.
Imagine sampling 10 num-
bers and computing the HyperStat’s layout is a little bizzarre
mean over and over again, say about 1,000 times, and then constructing a
relative frequency distribution of those 1,000 means. This distribution of
means is a very good approximation to the sampling distribution of the
mean. The sampling distribution of the mean is a theoretical distribution
that is approached as the number of samples in the relative frequency dis-
tribution increases. With 1,000 samples, the relative frequency distribution
is quite close; with 10,000 it is even closer. As the number of samples
approaches infinity, the relative frequency distribution approaches the
sampling distribution.

8.4.4 StatSoft’s Electronic Textbook

http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

The Statsoft’s electronic

textbook has a list of top-
ics on the right and an
easily accessible search
bar to help you find
exactly what you want.
The content ranges from
beginners to intermedi-
ate, and topics are
explained in a short and
crisp manner, but with-
StatSoft’s Electronic Textbook is for the strong
out depth. It seems to be -willed only!
targeted more at
Engineering Statistics than anything else.

158 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

Excerpt

“True” Mean and Confidence Interval

Probably the most often used descriptive statistic is the mean. The mean is a
particularly informative measure of the “central tendency” of the variable if
it is reported along with its confidence intervals. As mentioned earlier, usual-
ly we are interested in statistics (such as the mean) from our sample only to
the extent to which they can infer information about the population. The con-
fidence intervals for the mean give us a range of values around the mean
where we expect the “true” (population) mean is located (with a given level of
certainty, see also Elementary Concepts). For example, if the mean in your
sample is 23, and the lower and upper limits of the p=.05 confidence interval
are 19 and 27 respectively, then you can conclude that there is a 95% proba-
bility that the population mean is greater than 19 and lower than 27. If you
set the p-level to a smaller value, then the interval would become wider there-
by increasing the “certainty” of the estimate, and vice versa; as we all know
from the weather forecast, the more “vague” the prediction (i.e., wider the con-
fidence interval), the more likely it will materialize. Note that the width of the
confidence interval depends on the sample size and on the variation of data
values. The larger the sample size, the more reliable its mean. The larger the
variation, the less reliable the mean (see also Elementary Concepts).

8.5 Business Organisation

The curriculum for Business Organisation is somewhat similar to

that of Management. Web sites in the Management chapter will also
help you with this topic.

8.5.1. Mary Hogue’s Lecture Presentations

http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mhogue/Pof%20Management.htm
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mhogue/HRM.htm
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mhogue/I&GBehavior.htm

Mary Hogue of Kent State University has presented the syllabus of

Principles of Management as PowerPoint Presentation files, where

FAST TRACK 159

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

everything is explained crisply. Each chapter is presented in a sepa-

rate PPT file, and you have to download them all if you want to get
anywhere. The presentations can be used as quick notes for revision.

If anything, the explanations are a little too crisp, and some

principles of management, which others have written books
about, are explained in the presentations in just a couple of lines.
Still, it’s a good start for beginners, and once you’ve downloaded
the files, you can always reference them from your own computer,
even when offline.

8.5.2 Managerial Marketing

http://www.managerialmarketing.com/

Marketing Management is one of the options available in lieu of

accounting at the graduate level in some educational institutes. This
site is completely dedicated to marketing management. Topics are
listed on the right of the page, and clicking them provides you access
to the short articles. This is another ultra-quick guide for those just
looking to brush up on some basics of Marketing Management.

Excerpts

4.3. Illustrations: Marketing Research

Before discussing procedure let us see how marketing research might be

applied in practice.

A BAKING MIX. The first example concerns the manufactu-rer of a new

easy-to-use baking mix. Management had selected apartment dwellers,
younger couples and those too busy to cook as target markets; it was sup-
posed that these people would be most interested in this new product.
Preliminary analysis showed that these consumers, if they responded as an
expected, were numerous enough to make the baking mix profitable.

During the following months, sales and promotional efforts were

aimed exclusively at these markets. The results were very disappointing.

160 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
COMMERCE VIII

Assuming the promotion to be adequate, the manufacturer “guessed” that

the product itself might be unacceptable. At this point, a consumer survey
was taken. The results were surprising. The target consumers were not par-
ticu-larly interested in the baking mix. Instead, the best market turned out
to be those families who do their own cooking. They like the convenience of
the mix, for preparation of a quick dish when in a hurry.

The original choice of target markets, based upon executive opinion,

was in error. It led to an unsuitable plan and wasted promotional expense.
This manufacturer, who had tried to reach the wrong markets with a good
product, quickly changed his plans after the research facts were in.
Preliminary informa-tion about consumer thinking might have avoided
this costly error.

8.5.3 Online Book on Marketing by Gemmy Allen

http://ollie.dcccd.edu/mrkt2370/book/mrktbook.htm

An interactive online
hyper book on
Marketing by Gemmy
Allen is available here
for free reference.

The study guide has

notes which you can use
to periodically check your
progress. Study notes also
Read one of Gemmy Allen’s hyperlink books
have an outline of the
topics covered, definitions of important terms, objectives and dis-
cussion questions, etc. When you click on “review” you get a multi-
ple choice quiz, based on the topics covered in the chapter.

Excerpts

Importance of Marketing
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as the
process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and

FAST TRACK 161

 VIII COMMERCE
THE STUDENT’S WEB

distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy

individual and organizational goals. This definition of marketing first
appeared in Marketing News on March 1, 1986. It is included in the
Dictionary of Marketing Terms, 2d edition, edited by Peter D. Bennett, pub-
lished by the American Marketing Association, 1995.

The definition of marketing describes the nature of the process. Ralph

Mroz of ad lineam defines marketing as the process that aligns the desires
of customers with the capabilities of the enterprise. Marketing is a contin-
uous cycle that involves satisfying customer needs and wants by creating
mutually beneficial exchanges. A need is a state of felt deprivation. A want
is the conscious recognition of a need. Marketing begins with an idea about
a want-satisfying product and does not end until customers’ wants are
completely satisfied, which sometimes occurs after the sale.

The desire for a product together with the ability to pay for it is known
as demand. More specifically, it is the quantity of a product that will be
sold during a period of time at different prices. Demand comes from new
customers and repeat customers. Marketers must find demand, as well as
increase or decrease demand. Demarketing is the marketing task used to
reduce or shift demand. Marketing is essentially management of supply
and demand. Outstanding marketers go to great lengths to learn about
and understand their customers’ demands.

162 FAST TRACK

Arts

T he Arts don’t really lend themselves to the Internet very well.

There’s a lot of theory involved and a considerable amount of
regional knowledge being developed (or uncovered, as the case
may be). Most of the theoretical knowledge that is created in Arts
subjects comes from the western world. Subjects like Sociology
and Psychology find their foundations in the theories of scholars
who were/are either American or European. Obviously, this
means that given the information technology leap that they have
over other nations, their texts and study materials can be easily
found online.
 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

9.1. Sociology

Most of the core course material and theory of Sociology is avail-

able online. This includes Foundations to Social Thought and
Introduction to sociology. Information on most elective courses
like kinship and society is also available.

9.1.1. Sociology Central

(www.sociology.org.uk)
Sociology Central is designed as a student’s resource guide to sociol-
ogy. Being a UK site, it is intended to serve the purpose of UK A-Levels
learning, but it does suffice for first year and second year sociology
students. The site serves essentially AQA (Assessment and
Qualifications Alliance, an exam board in England) students, howev-
er, the courses and subjects are very similar to those run by the UGC.

The site has a simple interface with a few uncluttered icons

that make it easy to understand for even non-sociology students.
You can access each of the sections in the site by their respective
buttons, however, if you are looking for something more specific
that may be within one of the sections, you can try the drop down
menu on the bottom left corner of the page.

To begin with, head to the Resources section. This section gives

an overview of all the various resources that the site has for soci-
ology students, that are either available for reading on the site
itself, or for download. On the left are buttons for each of the dif-
ferent site resources. You can avoid the Schemes of Work button as
that is a working schedule for AQA students alone, and has no rel-
evance to Indian students. The Teaching Notes button leads you to
an intro page that describes the various sub-topics in sociology for
which teaching notes are available. These notes are short, well
written explanations of most sociological concepts and are avail-
able for download in either Word or PDF format. There are also
PowerPoint presentations (with slide notes) that you can
download on certain topics like New Left Realism and Approaches
to Deviance.

164 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

The Worksheets section is another very good resource. It con-

tains full text papers on various sociology topics that, like the
Teaching Notes, can be downloaded in both PDF and Word for-
mats. This section of the Web site is fairly extensive and even has
a section on research methodology that is relevant to anyone who
is writing a paper or an essay that is going to be published. It’s also
a good guide for anyone who wants to make citations from sources
both online and offline while paper writing.

The Revision section in Resources is a very good place to find

pre-examination revision notes. This section has word files that
can be printed and used before exams for quick revision.

Head back to the home page and click on the Online Resources
button. The page now displayed will give you a brief introduction
to the various online resources that are either available on the
site, or the site is linked to. This section also includes a Video Vault
that has a collection of video clips that explain certain sociologi-
cal concepts. These videos are hosted on Google Video so you can
stream them from your browser itself.

The most inter-

esting online
resource is the
Sociological
Detective, which
essentially is an
analysis of socio-
logical concepts
using the analogy
between a criminal
and a sociological
i n v e s t i g a t i o n . The Online Resources section is a warehouse of
Essentially, these interactive study tools
are case study
investigations into happenings in the field of sociology. These are
updated regularly with all the details required to solve the case.

FAST TRACK 165

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

Overall, this is a very useful site for sociology students with

almost everything from revision help to full text theories covered.

9.1.2 Quia
(www.quia.com/pages/sociologytamara.html)

Quia is an e-learning portal that acts as a study supplement to stu-

dents taking their A-levels. Once again, though the site is essen-
tially British, it does hold enough relevance for the UGC board
scheme of things as well.

Now, if you can get past the tacky graphics and gifs that hover
around the Web page, it’ll become clear that as a learning
resource, this site actually does have some substance. On the left
hand side of the page, is a links bar that contains links to the var-
ious sections of the site. These links are sorted by the various soci-
ology sub-topics. The Links bar also holds links to some interesting
readings to supplement one’s study. For example, there is a link to
an online sociology dictionary that gives the definitions of some
common sociological terms.

The right hand of the page contains another links bar (and
more cheesy GIFs). These links deal with the A-levels coursework.
However, at the bottom you will find an interesting link on
“Marxism made simple.” This external page is a layman’s guide to
one of the most relevant sociological theories being studied
today—besides it’s good reading anyway!

Though it may seem a little blog-ish at first, you will find that
there is a lot of information stored within the pages of the site.
And there is also a lot of content that you may not spot at first
glance, so take your time going through it.

The site has a lot of standard information on various sub-top-

ics of sociology including Crime, Wealth and Poverty, and Families
and Households. However, unlike other Web sites, Quia also gives
a host of related links at the bottom of every topic’s page. This is a

166 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

very valuable addition, especially since these links actually sup-

plement the information provided on Quia’s pages, as opposed to
being just different Web sites with the same information.

Quia also has a

host of quizzes and
Java-based games
that can be played
by readers. The
links to these can
be found at the bot-
tom of the subject
pages under a sec-
tion called Quia
Activities. Quia
Activities include Word Search on Quia—find Individualism!
quizzes, Java games
and Hangman—a word formation game. These Hangman (or is that
Hangmen?) games also revolve around sociology and sociologists,
and are an interesting break from the theory. The Java games are of
four types—Matching, Flashcards, Concentration and Word Search.

Matching is, basically, matching a particular sociological term

with its relevant definition. This game is based on cards that have
either the term or the meaning written on them. You need to click
on a term, and then click on the card that has its meaning to get a
point. Flashcards is a game based on flashcard, which, like in
Matching, have either terms or meanings on them. You need to
connect the term card with the meaning card. Concentration is
basically Matching with the cards turned upside down. You need to
match the card with the term with its right meaning. You also need
to do this is as less number of tries as possible. Word Search entails
searching for some Sociology related terms in a big jumble of
words. This is the most fun and testing of all the games on the site.

Though the site may not be as functional as it is colourful, it

does get points for its interactive content that is quite engaging.

FAST TRACK 167

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

9.1.3 Sociosite (www.sociosite.net)

Sociosite is a Sociology Web site hosted and maintained by the
Social Science Information System based at the University of
Amsterdam. It is a minimalistic Web site that has very few obtru-
sive graphics. But what it lacks in design, it more than makes up
for in content.

The Web site features a relatively uncluttered interface with a

simple tabular structure. The buttons on the homepage are self-
explanatory and deal with a host of resources. These range from
Subject Areas to Sociologists to even blogs on sociology. The site
essentially stores a host of links and, in some cases, some text, on
a variety of subjects related to sociology. For students, this makes
for an ideal reference location for studies.

Essentially, the site is like a Yellow Pages of all Web sites and
Web pages that are dedicated to studies in sociology. Click on the
Subject Areas button and you are taken to a page that shows all
the various sub-topics of sociology for which online resources are
available. This list is quite exhaustive, and each sub-topic has at
least eight to ten links under it that are related to that topic. There
is even a search bar so you can easily find several resources for
what you are looking for. We searched for several terms including
Poverty, Welfare, and Citizenship, and the search engine displayed
over 20 relevant results for each.

The Sociologists button on the homepage gives a list of all the

various “Godfathers” of Sociology. Most of these theorists, authors
and thinkers also have several Web pages dedicated to their works,
and you will find them all in this section. The section also has a
“Homepages of Sociologists” link that will take you to a page that
contains links to all the personal homepages of modern sociologists.

Each of the links provided in Sociosite have a small explanato-

ry paragraph attached to them that tells about what is contained
in the link. Some of the links are direct links to PDFs and other
texts related to sociology and sociological theories.

168 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

The Weblogs
button on the
homepage is an
interesting
resource as it gives
links to various
blogs around the
world that are
updated about top-
ics in sociology. For
students, this is a
great place to keep The site also features a link on the lighter side of
up-to-date on all sociology
the recent develop-
ments in the field of Sociology. There are over 25 blogs from all
over the world that are linked to this page, and they deal with not
only global sociological issues, but regional issues as well.

Overall, the site is well maintained (there are no broken

links) and quite exhaustive, which makes it a must-visit for sociol-
ogy students.

9.2. Psychology

For undergraduate psychology students, there is a vast amount of

resources available on the Web that can be found for any psychol-
ogy sub-topic including Organisational Behaviour. Specialised sub-
jects in the post-graduate programmes are slightly harder to find
references for.

9.2.1 Alley Dog

(www.alleydog.com)
Alley Dog is the self proclaimed “Psychology Student’s Best
Friend.” The site has a slick interface with well-designed buttons
and links that are very descriptive and easy to understand.

FAST TRACK 169

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The home page has, at the top left corner, a large search bar
that is intended to help find definitions in the psychology glos-
sary. We tried several searches of terms including Dissonance and
Mitosis and found a crisp, easily-understandable definition for the
term. You can also browse the glossary as a whole by clicking the
Glossary button on the homepage. The glossary is classified alpha-
betically with most psychology-related terms.

The Class Help button on the homepage takes you to a page

that offers notes on psychology-related subjects. These notes are
exhaustive, and are written quite crisply with bullet points, and
one can easily convert them into revision notes for pre-exam
revision.

This site is essentially intended for American students but is

quite relevant for Indian students as well—at least at the under-
graduate level, the courses are almost identical. For students look-
ing to apply to psychology schools in the States, the site also has
an effective guide to graduate psychology schools in the US. This
can be accessed by clicking the Grad School button on the home-
page. This page also has a Grad School search engine so you can
search about any American college that offers a Psychology pro-
gramme. The search engine also lets you narrow your search
options by giving you search criteria options—region, degrees
offered and programs offered. It’s a good starting point for anyone
who wants to study psychology in the US.

The guide to getting into a good graduate school has some FAQ
type links that answer common questions that students may have
about getting into a good graduate school. There is also some GRE
related help which, for Indian students, is a big bonus.

The site also gives a free e-mail address for psychology stu-
dents. You can register for an account by clicking on the Email but-
ton on the homepage. The free account is an ad-supported 25 MB
account which is very basic and lacks many of the features that
other free hosts like Gmail and Hotmail provide.

170 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

The Sites and Links button on the homepage takes you to a

topic menu—a database of Web sites and Web pages that have sub-
ject matter related to topics in Psychology. The best part about this
section is that each of the site links are followed by a good descrip-
tion of the site, its subject matter and what the site has to offer.
The Journals button on the homepage takes you to a page that has
a list of psychology related journals’ Web sites / pages. All the
journals mentioned in this page are arranged alphabetically.
However, we did find a few broken links in this section.

The site also has a Today’s Word link that has a word or term relat-
ed to psychology and its definition. This word gets refreshed daily. You
can also sign-up to have it sent to your email Inbox every day.

The most inter-

esting part of the
site by far has to be
the Forums. This is
a standard message
board style forum
that you can regis-
ter for free. The
forums are classi-
fied according to
subject and under
each subject we Get Psyched!—Free e-mail at Alley Dog
found several inter-
esting threads started by psychology students with doubts, clarifi-
cations or just something new to share. The forums seem to be
updated daily reflecting a good amount of student activity.

9.2.2 Higher Education Academy Psychology Network

(www.psychology.heacademy.ac.uk)

The Higher Education Academy is a UK based learning centre that

hosts this Web site. The Web site is fairly comprehensive in the
information it holds about psychology and psychology-related sub-

FAST TRACK 171

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

jects. It is also updated almost daily with news and developments

in the field of psychology.

There are two ways to navigate the site—the top main menu, or
the left hand side list of links. The links at the left-hand side of the
page number more than those in the top menu, and expand as you
go deeper into the Web site. Site navigation is simple, and the site
also provides reference links for information that is not available
on the site as well.

Head to the Resources section that displays a search box which

lets you search the various resources that the site has. These
resources are in the form of either information on the site itself, or
links to other sites that may have the information. If you are unsure
about what you are looking for, click the Browse resources link on
the left hand side of the page. This gives you a detailed look at the
various resources and types of resources that the site has to offer.

The resources are sorted by Software, Weblink, Video and Book.

Software is any multimedia arrangement that facilitates the study
of a particular topic in psychology. This includes coursework slides
and PowerPoint presentations. Most of these software are hosted by
other parties and require payment for their use. However, for stu-
dents just looking for revision PPTs, this is a good place to look.

Weblinks are an exhaustive list of Web sites and Web pages

that contain information regarding specific topics in psychology.
These links are well classified and are each supplemented with a
short description, keywords (for easy search) and the date when
the link was last updated. This is really beneficial as through the
description itself, you will know whether this was the resource
you were looking for. Each topic has a few links, so you have a
choice as well.

The video resources are either links to VHS / DVD related to the
particular subject that you can buy online, or links to places
where you can either download videos or watch them streaming

172 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

on a video host like YouTube or Google Video. Only a few sub-top-

ics have video links; these are not as common as Weblinks.

The Books
resource is essen-
tially links to books
on the subject that
you can buy online,
or download full
text PDFs of. The
site also hosts
reviews of a lot of
popular psychology
books that you can
download onto The list of resources catalogued on this Web site
your PC (in PDF for- is huge
mat) to read. You may also contribute to this network by submit-
ting your own book reviews on books that are related to psycholo-
gy in any way. The site has a guide to writing a book review in the
APA (American Psychology Association) style that you will need to
follow to submit your book review.

Click on the A Level Resources link on the left-hand side of the

page to get even more links and resources to subject matter relat-
ed to psychology. This link is essentially intended for British A-
level students, but is useful for under-graduate psychology stu-
dents as well. All the links mentioned in this section are also clas-
sified in the same way as the others on the Web site.

9.2.3 American Psychology Association (www.apa.org)

The American Psychology Association is the vanguard of teaching
and learning in psychology worldwide. It is considered to be at
the forefront of all the major developments in this field, and the
APA style is the most commonly-used style of referencing text all
over the world.

The APA Web site is very formal, and reflects the personality of

FAST TRACK 173

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

the organisation which is quite efficient and effective in its deliv-

ery of information. Though this Web site may not be too relevant
for undergraduate psychology students, it is more than important
for post-graduate students and students pursuing higher studies
in this field.

The site aggregates important news and developments in the

field of psychology from all over the world and displays them as
news links on the main page. In addition, you can search for
what’s new in a particular subject of psychology by clicking on any
of the topic links that have been efficiently catalogued under a
box called Psychology Topics. Clicking on any of the topics takes
you to that topics respective page, which contains, apart from
news related to the topic, a host of other information about it such
as recent studies conducted and articles about it in psychology or
social science journals from all over the world.

The site has a paid membership scheme as well; the cost of the
membership depends on what kind of membership you want
(Associate, Student, etc.) and how many journals you want to sub-
scribe to. However, we found there to be enough “free” data avail-
able on the Web site to make it worthwhile for any student.

Click on the Students link on the left-hand link bar of the

page. It takes you to a page dedicated to answering questions
about psychology any student may have before he/she decides to
start a career in it. This is a section that is particularly helpful for
students who have just passed out of school and are wondering
about studies in social sciences. You can find information here on
career options, funding for studies abroad and even a students
forum where you can discuss issues with other students from
around the world.

The News link on the left-hand side of the page gives informa-
tion collected by various newswires about psychology. There is also
a link to gradPSYCH magazine, which is a magazine for American
graduate students. This magazine has interesting articles and

174 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

research about
developments in
psychology and
theory.

Overall, the APA

site is a valuable
resource for any
student either
beginning an edu-
cation in psycholo-
gy, or for students Stay one step ahead with gradPSYCH magazine
who are looking
for further studies in this field.

9.3 Political Science

Political Science is very region-specific, as the information taught

has a lot to do with the polity of the country with respect to the
world. So though there are some general principles that are com-
mon to political science students around the world, there is a
large portion of text that is entirely nation-specific.

9.3.1 Vanderbilt University Central Library of Political

Science
(www.library.vanderbilt.edu/romans/polsci/)

Vanderbilt University in the United States has a sizeable political

science department. This university has, in fact, one of the most
prestigious political science courses in not only the United States,
but all around the world.

The Web site is basically a catalogue of various sub-topics on

political science ranging from Political Theory to International
Relations. The links under these sub-headers contain databases of

FAST TRACK 175

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

links relating to that particular subject matter from third-party

sites from around the world. The classification is done well and is
easy to understand.

Each section has under it a link called Popular Starting Points

which, as the name suggests, has links that make the topic easy to
understand even for a person who is not educationally related to
Political Science. Each of the links provided have an accompanying
paragraph about what is contained on those Web pages.

For undergraduate students, the Political Thought section is a

good place to start. This section contains links on Political Theory
and Ancient and Modern Political Philosophers. The links under
this section suffice for the foundation courses in Political Science.
Each of the sites provided also mention the name of the author or
political theorist whose site it is, or whose theory is being dis-
cussed. We were unable to find any broken links. Also, the site is
updated frequently so a link that does not exist anymore is either
removed, or a notice of the same accompanies the link.

The Ancient and Modern Political Philosophers sections con-

tain links sorted by the names of these philosophers. You will
find exhaustive texts (including biographies) of these philoso-
phers on these pages. Some of the links are direct links to PDF
documents with works of these authors that you can download
for free. The General Resources section also has referencing tips
if you want to reference any of the text found on the pages for a
research paper or article.

At the bottom of the homepage you will also find a search bar
that allows you to search for articles, research papers or books
related to topics in Political Science. The search engine scours the
site for related texts. You may choose to refine your search by
author, description or title and sort your results by either title or
date. We ran a search on “India” and found results pertaining to
nuclear weapons proliferation, Indian political news, and some
controversial topics like India’s response to the September 11

176 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

attacks. Overall, the

site is a great start-
ing point for any
undergraduate or
postgraduate stu-
dent of Political
Science. The site
can be navigated
easily and has an
interface that is
very functional and
light on the eyes, The section on Ancient Political Philosophers is quite
and bandwidth. detailed

9.3.2 Samarth Bharat

(www.samarthbharat.com)
Samarth Bharat is a site run by a few Indians inclined to Indian
political thought, and generally, Indian current affairs. Though
the site may not have much political theory information in it, it is
a good place to read articles and research papers on developments
in modern Indian polity.

The site has some pretty tacky graphics replete with GIFs and
colourful links. On the left-hand side of the homepage you with
find a scrollable links menu that contains links on a host of sub-
ject matters including Political Structure, Governance and
Constitution and even a link to a section called BJP & RSS. The arti-
cles held within these sections relate to government policies and
schemes related to the subject matter of the section.

Some of the articles are downloadable in PDF format and can

be downloaded free of charge. In the Political Structure section of
the Web site there is a good piece called the “Story of Development
of Indian Political Thought,” which is a must-read for any under-
graduate political science student. This article can be downloaded
in PDF format, and as a ZIP file. There are other such theory relat-
ed articles as well in this section that you can either read on the

FAST TRACK 177

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

site itself or download to your computer. These articles are a bit

old (2004 and earlier), but they are still relevant as they deal with
the history of political thought in India.

The Current Articles section is more up-to-date and has articles

and research papers on topics such as reservation in colleges. This
section also has a lot of non-political topics written with a politi-
cal slant. For example, there is an article in this section on Land
Acquisitions and it heavily references the Constitution and laws
relating to the subject.

The Governance and Constitution section of the Web site has

articles based on institutions of the government such as educa-
tion, railways, etc. Some of the articles in this section are available
for download both in Hindi and in English. For post-graduate stu-
dents, this site is a great resource as the articles not only talk
about current theories in the Indian political system, but also
thoughts on how to change them and what are the pros and cons
of each. For example, in the Justice and Judiciary section of the
Web site, there is an article that argues for the keeping of the
death penalty in the Indian judiciary system. Of course there is a
certain political writer’s bias in some of the pieces, but each arti-
cle is well thought out and tries as far as possible to give both sides
of the story.

The site also

has a section called
Pakistan which has
articles related to
Indo-Pak issues
including not only
Kashmir but other
matters such as
trade policies as
well. The site how-
ever lacks a search
bar that would The Political Thought section has several must-read
articles for students

178 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

have made browsing through so many articles much easier.

Overall, the site is a good resource for students looking for Indian
Political thought and new developments in the same.

9.3.3 Ministry of Law and Justice

(http://lawmin.nic.in/)

The Ministry of Law and Justice Government of India Web site is

one of the most valuable and under-rated resources available to
political science students today. Maintained by the Government of
India, it is updated frequently with all the changes made in the
Indian Legislative system. However, it is also one of the worst sites
to navigate and is thoroughly confusing to anyone who is not
studying political science.

The site, like most Indian Government Web sites, is very infor-
mation heavy but not user-friendly at all. For example, every site
link that you click opens in a new window of your browser. Also,
there are no “Home” links on any of the pages, so either you make
sure that the home page is open at all times, or you type it in to
your address bar the next time you want to access it.

But what the Web site may be lacking in formatting and inter-
face, it more than makes up for in content. Each of the subsections
of the Web site have Introduction links that give a brief introduc-
tion of what the section is about and how it is relevant to the
Indian Political structure. For example, the Introduction link to
the Legislative Department has a short history of the department
and a few of the key functions that it is intended to perform.

Apart from this there is also a link to the Constitution of India.

This link takes you to an index page which is essentially the table
of contents of the Constitution which is updated up to the ninety
third Amendment. The table of content contains links that allow
you to download the sections of the Constitution in PDF format on
to your computer. You can also visit the Constitution Web site at
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiWeb/welcome.html. This Web page

FAST TRACK 179

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

allows you to find whatever you are looking for in the Constitution
with an easy Search option.

One of the most relevant links on the Web site is the India
Code link. The
India Code is a text
base of all the legis-
lations passed by
the Central
Government. This
page contains legis-
lations passed by
the Government
right from 1834
onwards. The India
Code page features
a search option See, the Government can be cool too
that allows you to
search for Parliament and Legislative Assembly Bills by Title, Act
Year, Act Objective and even Full Act Text. You may also choose to
browse these Bills by clicking on the Parliamentary Bills or the
Legislative Bills links on the page. You can also browse the Acts
alphabetically and chronologically by clicking on the relevant
links on the left hand side of this page.

The Law Ministry Web site also has related links to the
Supreme Court of India and other related Government institu-
tions as well. The left hand side of the page has a bunch of expand-
able links with related material to Indian law and justice. This is
possibly the least confusing section of the Web site as well.

This Web site is a must visit for any political science student
who intends to make a career in that field. Please also use the
Contact the Webmaster link to tell him/her that the site needs a
major facelift!

180 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

9.4 Anthropology

Anthropology coursework, like with sociology, can be found

online for mainly the general theories and practices. This is rele-
vant for both first and second year Anthropology graduate stu-
dents. There is a vast portion of information also available for stu-
dents pursuing higher education in Anthropology.

9.4.1 Virtual Library of Anthropology

(http://vlib.anthrotech.com/)

The Virtual Library of Anthropology is maintained by an organi-

zation called Anthrotech. It is a superlative guide to Anthropology
that contains information and resources about almost all
Anthropology related topics.

We recommend that you register on the Web site before you

start browsing through it, as many of the sections require logins.
Registration is free and you can register by clicking on the Create
Account link at the top right hand corner of the page. Registration
allows you access to all the different sections of the Web site includ-
ing the forums which are accessed by anthropology students and
enthusiasts from around the world.

The USP of the site is its directory. The Directory is a database

of several hundreds of links on issues and subjects related to
Anthropology. Most of the links provided are quite recent; howev-
er some sections have dated links of Web pages that are quite old.
We did not find any broken links though.

Site navigation is fairly simple. The homepage has a lot of

buttons and links but these are conveniently arranged for easy
access, and are largely uncluttered. The homepage also has Site
of The Day and Site of the Month links, which feature selected
sites that have relevant and current information on anthropol-
ogy and related developments around the world.

FAST TRACK 181

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

The site also

has a Game
Center; however
there is just one
link on this
page—Anthro
Hangman. This
is an interesting
game that
involves identi-
fying an anthro-
pology related
word with a With Anthro Hangman, who needs Counter-Strike?
hint and a limited amount of tries. For first year students of
anthropology and those who are just interested in the field, the
ideal place to start is the Explore Anthropology link on the
homepage. This link provides brief guides to various sub-fields
in anthropology, along with reference links for further study.
For example, the “What Is Anthropology” link gives a brief intro-
duction to anthropology and the study of the subject. At the end
of the page is a list of references that you can click on to get
more information regarding the question.

The search bar on the homepage allows you to search for any
keywords related to the topic you are looking for. It also allows you
to search within anthropological sub-fields like applied anthro-
pology and biophysical anthropology. Each of the sub-sections con-
tains a directory of links related to the subject.

The forum is a good place to find students and enthusiasts of

Anthropology and to discuss issues related to the subject. It is
divided by sub-fields of anthropology and is largely un-moderated.
You can also see who’s online at the particular moment and see
your general forum stats like number of posts, etc., as well.

182 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

9.4.2 Palomar College Anthropology Program

(www.palomar.edu/anthropology)

The Palomar
C o l l e g e
Anthropology
program Web
site is hosted by
the Behavioural
Science depart-
ment of the
Palomar College.
Though it is
essentially
intended for
a n t h r o p o l o g y Crossword puzzles spice up the tutorial experience
students of the
college, it bears relevance to Indian anthropology students.

The Web site is simply designed, and navigation is not compli-

cated. The homepage has a brief introduction to Anthropology
along with a list of Anthropology Weblinks. These links are classi-
fied according to sub-areas of anthropology and provide compre-
hensive overviews of the same. There is even a link on
Anthropology as a Career which takes you to a Web site that gives
students all the various career options that one has when one
decides to enter the field of anthropology.

The really worthwhile section of this Web site is its

Anthropology Tutorials link. Tutorials are available on all topics
related to Biological and Cultural anthropology. These tutorials
are quite exhaustive and contain large quantities of study and ref-
erence materials that students can use.

Biological Anthropology has study material on subjects rang-

ing from early theories of evolution to evolution of modern
humans. Each of these subjects has text matter related to it,

FAST TRACK 183

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

along with sound clips that can be downloaded on to your com-

puter. The text matter is quite descriptive and is replete with
photographs and practice quizzes. The practice quizzes are
linked at the end of each study page and are objective type
quizzes based on the material on the page. The navigation with-
in these pages is excellent with well placed Home and Back links
that are unobtrusive.

Apart from quizzes, each subject also has Flash Cards links.
These flash cards are text cards that are based on the topic. You
can view them on the site and download a printable version of the
same. The flash cards come in handy for easy revisions before
examinations. They are also effective in stimulating your memory
on different topics.

Each subject also has a crossword puzzle related to the sub-

ject. You can play the crossword puzzle online or download a
printable version onto your computer. To play the crossword
puzzles on your computer, you need to ensure that your brows-
er is Java-compatible.

Along with this, each subject also has a list of references on

the Web that contain information regarding the subject. There
is also a glossary of terms for any of the terms used within the
subject. An interesting addition is the Web Expeditions link,
which takes you to a page that has a few Web expeditions that
students can carry out themselves. Essentially a Web expedition
is a case study or a question related to the subject for which you
can use a host of search engines, all linked on the page, to find
the solution or answer.

This is one of the best Web tutorials for Anthropology available

on the Web and a must visit for all students of the subject.

184 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

9.5 Literature

The subject matter taught in literature courses differs from col-

lege to college, and even UGC does not specify one particular
guideline for colleges to follow in the discourse of this subject.
However, we have tried to cover most commonly taught principles
and courses covered in literature courses.

9.5.1 Luminarium
(www.luminarium.org)
The Luminarium is the self-proclaimed anthology of English
Literature. It is perhaps the most vast of all Web resources on
English literature, even containing an encyclopaedia on the subject.

The site is very well designed with Elizabethan styling includ-

ing fonts and pictures. Navigation is fairly simple and though
there are pages that have over 20 links on them, the design is
uncluttered. The homepage is designed chronologically, that is, it
has links to pages that contain subject matter related to particular
periods / eras of English literature. It starts from the Mediaeval
and ends at Restoration covering four of the most prominent and
influential eras of English Literature.

The homepage also has links to information regarding the dif-

ferent types of writers who were influential during these periods.
They range from the religious writers to the cavalier poets. Each of
these links contains vast amounts of information regarding its
particular subject matter.

The era links take you to pages that contain information on

particular writers during those eras. For example, the Medieval
link has links to works of Chaucer, Gower, and Gowain amongst
others. There are also essays and articles linked to each of these
eras that can be accessed by the Essays and Articles links that are
displayed on the pages.

Each of the writers have their own page that contain quotes, a

FAST TRACK 185

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

biography, a list
and description
of the writers
works and other
resources. The
amount of quali-
ty information
available on this
Web site is
unsurpassed and
therefore, it
makes the Web
site a must visit The Luminarium homepage is wonderfully designed and
yet remains extremely functional
for all levels of
literature students. Each of the writers’ pages also has a link to
additional resources for further information on the writers that
may be available on other sites online. The site also hosts essays on
the writers that have been contributed by literature professors
from institutes around the world.

On the homepage, you can search, via a Google-powered search

bar, the entire Web site. The homepage also has a link to the
Luminarium Encyclopedia Project. This project essentially pro-
vides a historical context to all the various information provided
on the Web site. On the right-hand side of this page you will find
an index of links that is basically a contents bar for the ency-
clopaedia. Each of the entries in the encyclopaedia is a well
research context piece on either the writer or the period and
makes for interesting reading even for non-students of literature.

Overall, the site is by far the biggest database of English

Literature information available on the Web today and is a must-
visit for all literature students.

186 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT’S WEB
ARTS IX

9.5.2 The Internet Public Library

(http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/)

The IPL is a site hosted by the School of Information of the

University of Michigan. The site is essentially a reference guide to
sites that contain information regarding certain topics on litera-
ture. The site also has a special collection on literary criticism
which is very exhaustive.

The literary criticism collection contains links to critical and

biographical Web sites about different writers and their works.
The site is well designed and navigation is very simple. On the
left hand side of the page you will also find links to other col-
lections that are maintained on the IPL which include almost all
Arts subjects as well.

The main page of the literary criticism collection allows you to

browse for criticisms using a variety of classifications. You can
browse using the author’s last name, or the title of some work, or
by different literary periods. You can also browse the collection
through literary styles of different geographical regions. This
option is available on the right hand side of the page. Here you
will also find a link to Indian literature.

The Indian literature link is not as exhaustive as links to say

American literature. However, the Webpage does contain links to
three very good Web sites that contain information regarding
criticisms of Indian literature. You can also find links to criti-
cisms of the works of Anita Desai, Bharti Mukherjee, and A K
Ramanujan on this page.

A good place to start your look into this Web site is the Online
Literary Criticism Guide. This page contains links to Web sites that
are good starting points into a study of literary criticism. Each of
the links is accompanied by a paragraph that describes the Web
site efficiently, so you know exactly what you’ll get at the link you
click. The links on this place also contain links to studies on liter-

FAST TRACK 187

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT’S WEB

ary theory that complement the study of literary criticism, and in

fact, provide a basis for the same.

The Web site

also features an
“Ask A Question”
service. This is a
one of a kind
service that
allows you to
pose any ques-
tion related to
the subject of lit-
erature to the
staff of the IPL.
You can ask any The Ask A Question option on the IPL is a feature that
makes this site stand out
query you may
have about literature by filling up a simple form. Your question is
answered by students and librarian volunteers from schools
around the United States and Canada. Obviously, this means that
you won’t get your reply immediately. However, the site claims
that your question will be answered usually within a week. If you
want a question answered quicker than that, you can mention
that in the form, and the site will try as far as possible to answer
your question within the date you give.

The site also has a search engine that is situated at the top
right hand corner of each and every Webpage within the site. We
ran a search on “Hindi” and found links to Web sites related to
Hindi grammar and an online Hindi dictionary. We also found a
link to a library of Hindu history.

Overall, the site is very well organised and has some exciting
features for literature students.

188 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT'S WEB

Notes
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

FAST TRACK 189

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT'S WEB

................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

190 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT'S WEB
ARTS IX

................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

FAST TRACK 191

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT'S WEB

................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

192 FAST TRACK

THE STUDENT'S WEB
ARTS IX

................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

FAST TRACK 193

 IX ARTS
THE STUDENT'S WEB

................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................

194 FAST TRACK