science

This Is... (book series)

This Is... (book series) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand This Is... (book series) rather than just read about it. In short: This Is... is a series of children's travel books written and illustrated by Czech author Miroslav Sasek between 1959 and 1974. Sasek originally intended to write three books (This Is Paris, This Is London and This Is Rome); however, as a result of those titles' popularity, Sasek ultimately extended the series to 18 books.

Key takeaways

This Is... (book series) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect This Is... (book series) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of This Is... (book series) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This Is... is a series of children's travel books written and illustrated by Czech author Miroslav Sasek between 1959 and 1974. Sasek originally intended to write three books (This Is Paris, This Is London and This Is Rome); however, as a result of those titles' popularity, Sasek ultimately extended the series to 18 books. Four of the This Is books were adapted into movie shorts by Weston Woods in the early 1960s: This Is New York, This Is Venice, This Is Israel and This Is Ireland. The This Is series was published in the United Kingdom by W. H. Allen & Co. and in the United States by The Macmillan Company, and in translation in several other countries. In 2003, after those series went out of print, the Rizzoli publishing firm began reissuing some of the titles, although not in the original publication order. In these books, outdated facts were updated at the back of the book but the original artwork was preserved.

Books in the series This Is Paris (1959) (republished 2004) This Is London (1959) (republished 2004) This Is Rome (1960) (republished 2007) This Is New York (1960) (republished 2003) This Is Edinburgh (1961) (republished 2006) This Is Munich (1961) (republished 2012) This Is Venice (1961) (republished 2005) This Is San Francisco (1962) (republished 2003) This Is Israel (1962) (republished 2008) This Is Cape Canaveral (1963) (later republished as This Is Cape Kennedy) (republished 2009 as This Is the Way to the Moon) This Is Ireland (1964) (republished 2005) This Is Hong Kong (1965) (republished 2007) This Is Greece (1966) (republished 2009) This Is Texas (1967) (republished 2006) This Is the United Nations (1968) This Is Washington, D.C. (1969) (republished 2011) This Is Australia (1970) (republished 2009) This Is Historic Britain (1974) (republished 2008 as This Is Britain) Compilation

This Is the World: A Global Treasury (published 2014: abridged versions of 16 titles in one volume – the excluded titles are Cape Canaveral and the United Nations)

References

External links Ian Willoughby, This is Miroslav Šašek: “Genius” émigré illustrator now receiving recognition at home at Radio Prague

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with This Is... (book series)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what This Is... (book series) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to This Is... (book series) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about This Is... (book series) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of This Is... (book series)

In research: This Is... (book series) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses This Is... (book series) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: This Is... (book series) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Children's book series, Children's non-fiction books, Non-fiction book series, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for This Is... (book series) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study This Is... (book series) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what This Is... (book series) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain This Is... (book series) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is This Is... (book series) in simple terms?

Why does This Is... (book series) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study This Is... (book series)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on This Is... (book series).