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Update: In response to the positive feedback progress is now being made towards producing the first ever physics SE book. If you would like to see your own high quality answer in this book, please nominate your answer below and if there is sufficient interest I will include a section in the book with your requests.

If you are nominating your answer, please ensure both the question and answer doesn't include any images or references that may be copyright and please let me know of your nomination by 01/03/2017.

If anyone is interested in reviewing the book prior to publishing please let me know.

As you may be aware, Quora has created a physical book compiling some of the top contributions from a variety of topics.

enter image description here

I'm wondering if there would be any interest in publishing a similar hard-copy book compiling the top posts from Physics.SE or perhaps even have the top posts from a variety of different SE sites in the one book.

What do you guys think? Would anyone be interested in having such a book and do you think it should be for Physics only or include a variety of topics (e.g. include all science topics)?

Once we've determined the level of interest we can investigate the costs of publishing and if it is feasible.

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    $\begingroup$ This could also be asked on the main meta. $\endgroup$
    – ghosts_in_the_code
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 10:30
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    $\begingroup$ @ghosts_in_the_code perhaps, but I'd rather start with our smaller community here first. If it is a success then we can potentially ask on the main. $\endgroup$
    – Kenshin
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 10:56
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    $\begingroup$ Related on mother meta: meta.stackexchange.com/q/273911/263383 $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 11:37
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    $\begingroup$ On one hand I like the idea but on the other hand I don't think it will be worth the effort to publish the book without the help of the company (SE). Also, I'm not sure if the PSE community will be willing to fund the endeavour . It seems like a high input low output situation to me. $\endgroup$
    – 2017
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 13:14
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    $\begingroup$ @anonymous I will be personally funding the endeavour and already have an affordable publisher. I just now need to ascertain the level of interest in the book. $\endgroup$
    – Kenshin
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 13:24
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    $\begingroup$ Related: meta.physics.stackexchange.com/q/9189/2451 $\endgroup$
    – Qmechanic Mod
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 15:13
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    $\begingroup$ For me, interest depends significantly on what questions are in it. $\endgroup$
    – auden
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 15:36
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    $\begingroup$ I think it should be just physics. But I also think there's a whole rack of issues in producing a book. Which questions do you pick? Which answers do you pick? What if they've got lots up upvotes but they're flat-out wrong? What if a poster asks for a cut? What if it doesn't sell? A lot of the younger generation just don't read books. They don't like paying for things, especially things they can download for free. Good luck to anybody who wants to give it a shot. IMHO they will need it. $\endgroup$
    – John Duffield
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 16:16
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnDuffield all posts on SE are CC-by-SA, so do not see how one would have a leg to stand on in asking for a cut. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 17:24
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnDuffield The What-If XCKD book sold very well. I think most (all?) of the content in that book is online. $\endgroup$
    – Tim
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 17:29
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    $\begingroup$ @Tim : noted. I do think XKCD is a bit special though. Love that relativistic baseball! $\endgroup$
    – John Duffield
    Commented Feb 20, 2017 at 13:07
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    $\begingroup$ Its could be an interesting idea, especially if its packaged correctly and offered to the right audience. A lot can be made for the rapidly growing online interest of the wanna be physicist. A world where Google and the mutual interest of millions participate from around the world. Both layman and pro asking from different points of view. I feel quite confidant that sites like these are the breeding ground for the next paradigm shift. What's interesting about these important questions is the number of answers and how different they are but more interesting is how much we really don't know. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Alsept
    Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 21:16
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    $\begingroup$ @heather in Australia we go day/month/year, I'll update later for clarity :) $\endgroup$
    – Kenshin
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 22:58
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    $\begingroup$ "In response to the positive feedback..." I'm curious. Link? $\endgroup$
    – DanielSank
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 7:54
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    $\begingroup$ I am glad to know such thing is also going on, because one day I was worried if all the questions are disappeared :) I will love to review the book. I know I am late (I was in hibernation) $\endgroup$
    – L.K.
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 17:34

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If I missed this in the comments, I apologise, but could you trial it on say, the Kindle platform and see what the response is? I don't know Amazon's terms and conditions, and perhaps you have investigated this already. Best of luck with it anyway.

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I trust the tastes of the community generally, so I would like to nominate the most upvoted answers from the most upvoted questions, starting with Cooling Cup of Coffee with Spoon

But then it seems to make the whole point of the book pointless if anyone can access what's already conveniently here.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks @John, many of the top voted questions/answers will appear in the book however I should note that it is not the only indicator of quality. Other indicators of quality have also been considered such as the number of down-votes, post-length, the number of votes on both the question and answer being published and more. The book will also include questions from a variety of physics topics. $\endgroup$
    – Kenshin
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 0:11
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    $\begingroup$ Honestly, the linked question is not actually that good a question and the answers are only so-so (and mostly contradictory to each other). The only reason it is so heavily voted is because Randall Munroe drew people to it in his What If blog. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 11:20
  • $\begingroup$ @KyleKanos which goes to show how tastes differ, because I love the linked question. It's a great example of the interplay between experimentalists and theorists, with the correct answer being the experiment since it always trumps theory. $\endgroup$
    – John McAndrew
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 21:10
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnMcVirgo: Except the "experiment" was done exactly once without much control of the apparatus (notice the discrepancy of the initial temperature?). There is also no analysis of the "experiment", just the display of the single run. That's Mythbusters-level science there (i.e., not at all science). $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 21:22
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actually if u r really interested in giving out a really quality book how about trying like this for one question we can find so many different answers in stack exchange site and also in google we can get some info along with that we have many questions which relate very closely to one questions in addition to be having many answers and moreover many links regarding the related stuff are available from those links we can get some info so how about putting all this info together? i know it takes a lot paper work and time and all but what i think is if u want to go for something, it would be always better to go for the best so what do u think?

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