Free textbook on engineering thermodynamics
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HN · launched Apr 26, 2026 · 191 upvotes (top 4%) · 0 views
Niche: technical books and learning resources · 58 launches, 3 in the last 7 days ▼ -73% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Education
- Content generation
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 58 launches in technical books and learning resources →
Could you build this?
No This is an academic engineering textbook containing 330 pages of specialized university-level physics, equations, and diagrams written by an academic subject matter expert.
What it would actually take: Producing a rigorous 330-page engineering thermodynamics textbook requires deep academic domain expertise in mechanical and thermal engineering, extensive pedagogical experience, and authoring rigorous mathematical proofs and solved problem sets.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Parr, Pezzulo & Friston (cross-disciplinary thermodynamics/neuroscience), Active Inference textbook (MIT, variational free energy approach), Low-cost textbook publishers in developing world
Concerns raised: PDF file size too large (PNG compression doesn't carry over to PDF), Payment processing fees too high (25% of earnings), Hard copy textbooks still dominant in developing world despite digital alternatives, Textbook publishing industry acts as price-gouging middleman
Feature requests: Convert PNG diagrams to SVG for better compression, Optimize image file sizes in PDF, Provide mental health appendix given historical tragedies in thermodynamics field
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 92 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #8 of 93 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 177 days after the earliest competitor.
- sound-physics-textbook · github · 2026-10-01 · 24 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Einstein_Szilard_Refrigerator · github · 2026-10-28 · 26 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- academic-papers-guide · github · 2026-10-29 · 26 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- Mechanics Quiz · ph · 2026-09-26 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.39
- Free-College-Stochastic-Processes · github · 2026-10-19 · 24 upvotes · similarity 0.38
- atlas-of-physics · github · 2026-10-28 · 311 upvotes · similarity 0.38
- Qthermo · github · 2026-09-11 · 42 upvotes · similarity 0.37
- threejs-particle-fluids · github · 2026-09-25 · 175 upvotes · similarity 0.37
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