Reviews (14)

Big Joke
Beware! This book is no serious science book, it's no more than a paper-incarnation of a big poor joke..
The most incomplete engineering book ever.
It's a good book it just askes me as a student to assume too much.Some of the problems at the end of the chapters are incomplete.
Excellent for starters in fluid mechanics engineering.
I bought the book by mistake since I was looking for a more physical introduction to fluid mechanics. However, once I started reading, I could not stop. The book is a pleasure to read. Every concept is explained crystal clear. No single step is skipped. Almost every concept is illustrated with one or more very detailed solved examples. It is frequent in most technical books to find how the level of clarity degrades progressively as you approach the end of the book. This is not the case. Every chapter up to the very end is carefully arranged and the level is maintained.
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Subjects:  1. Fluid mechanics    2. Mechanics - Dynamics - Fluid Dynamics    3. Mechanics - General    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Textbooks    7. Science / Mechanics   

Reviews (11)

Excellent book on all aspects of Freshman Physics
This series of textbooks on college freshman physics is simply the best I have found in print, even if it is not the most widely used. It has clear explanations of all concepts, plenty of instructive diagrams, and most of all many interesting solved problems and examples. I am by no means saying that this is an easy book, you will need to read it carefully and work through the examples. However, unlike with other physics textbooks, all of the information is there if you are willing to put forth the required time and effort. Make sure you've had the first two semesters of calculus first though, or there are parts of this book that will not make sense to you. If you are interested in having a good textbook and reference for both college physics and modern physics, it is the best choice you could make. If you are only interested in the classical physics part, I suggest you buy the 10th edition and save yourself a lot of money. The 10th edition has just a very abbreviated section on modern physics. This book is of great use for engineers, because not only will it get you through your freshman physics sequence smoothly, it is a great reference with lots of examples that you will need when you take statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and your sophomore level courses on electric circuits and EM. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
One of the best
This book is one of the best general physics texts there is. Period. The author(s) took the time to clearly explain topics and answer all those little "Wait, why did you do this?" questions that other texts leave to you to figure out. I still go back to this book instead of Hibbeler's engineering series as the concepts are explained much more clearly and the excersizes are tough to make sure you really learn the concepts. Another great feature of this book is it's easy to understand writting style. Reading the book is just like having a professer explain something to you in person, not a mathenatician reading a theorem out loud, unlike say, Hibbeler. Very good choice overall.

Superb book for the beginning Physics student
This book is the best book out there that I have seen for the beginning Physics student.It is a bit wordy as some of the reviews have said, but I think the authors have done their best to bend over backwards to explain each Physics topic in a simple, clear, and unassuming way for the neophyte.Even as reference, this textbook is invaluable, because it explains concepts down to the nitty gritty detail; unlike a book like Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Krane which just drops you onto your head expecting you to have some understanding of the subject already.This book is unpresumptious, unpretentious, and yes for some; unsophisticated, but when you're just starting out in Physics, no one expects you to be an Einstein or Feynman right from the start. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Physics (General)    3. Science    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Science / Physics    6. Teaching of a specific subject   

Reviews (37)

Terrible.
This book is extremely confusing and has too much distracting information.It's sad that many schools use this as their text on physics.There is little to no math in this book to assist you, yet the review sections expect you to know the math to do the work.How is that possible?Terrible book.

harmful
This book is complete nonsense. It reflects an ever growing ideology among the so called 'pedagogs' who themselves never understood physics. It can not even be considered a physics textbook. The book pressums utter stupidity on the part of the reader, and it is painful to think anyone besides 5-year-olds can be forced to read this.
Better conceptual physics texts are available-
I've taught "conceptual" (fundamental) physics from this text at two universities and one community college.I have never liked the text - and this later edition has not changed my mind.(Don't let the catchy cover photo fool you.)Fortunately I no longer have to use the text.It is just too long and filled with too many topics for a one semester college level "conceptual physics" course.I don't think most college instructors who use this text ever make it through half the topics.
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Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Science    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Science / Physics   

Reviews (20)

"Not Even Wrong" for Dummies
I read this book a month or so after finishing "Not Even Wrong" by mathematician Peter Woit.Both volumes deal with the same subject: the failure of string theory to make testable predictions that would allow it to be proven or falsified.Both works are excellent.This one has the advantage of being far more understandable for laypeople. Finally the truth
After years of spirited propaganda by string theorists purporting to have stumbled upon the ultimate theory of nature, we now have a revealing, tell-all tale that throws back the covers on what has turned out to be the most intellectually disengenuous ruse in the history of science - the continual presentation of string theory as the be-all, end-all theory of everything -despite its utter lack of predictive power, its failure to predict dark energy, its myriad of versions, and its reliance on anthropic reasoning. Smolin, along with Peter Woit (who also dared to go against the 'establishment') should be thanked for bringing this house-of-crashing cards to the public's attention. Despite pitiful and below-the-belt attacks and outright dismissal by members of the 'stringy' establishment, including a scathing and unprovoked attack by a theorist from Harvard who sees a threat in works of this nature, Smolin gives us a thoughful and provoking look at the many failures (and occasional mathematical successes) of the most overhyped theory in the history of science.

Great book, but not perfect
This is a superb, five star, technical book. Smolin starts by describing the five, big, unsolved problems of physics. Then proceeds to a wide ranging overview of the last three decades of theoretical and experimental work, assessing how much (if any) progress has been made toward answering the five big problems. String theory from this perspective gets a failing grade. Smolin's writing is always clear and lucid, providing non-physicists with at least a modicum of understanding of complex issues. If you have any interest in modern physics, I urge you to read this book.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. History    3. Methodology    4. Modern - 20th Century    5. Physics    6. Physics (General)    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. String models    10. Science / Physics   

Reviews (92)

Thank you, David griffiths
This book is wonderful news to anyone who is frustrated with Jackson, or alternatively, is an excellent preface to it; Chapter 1 is particularly helpful as it presents all the necessary vector analysis, and is filled with illuminating geometrical interpretations to otherwise obscure mathematical creatures.
Worst book ever
A shining star in the quest for the most incomplete work ever published by credible institutions, David Griffiths triumphs over both the competition and his other works with his widely-distributed Third Edition of Introduction to Electrodynamics.
Book good, Amazon not
This book is a great introduction to electrodynamics and contains well worked out examples and good problems.
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Subjects:  1. Electrodynamics    2. Electromagnetism    3. Physics    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Communications engineering / telecommunications    7. Electricity, magnetism & electromagnetism    8. Science / Physics   

Reviews (31)

Books like this are the reason people abandon physics!
I am by no means incompetent, as I am an honors student and have no problem getting strait A's in calculus, linear algebra and object oriented programming, but this book is abysmal and almost impossible to follow.The book is horrible on so many levels.First off, many of the chapters start off throwing equations at you, and offer no clarity as to the purpose of the equation.The text very poorly explains concepts and the problems given throughout the book are even worse.The problems given during the chapters literally throw information out at you that was'nt ever touch upon in the entire chapter, and to make matters worse, i've counted 4 problems that have incorrect solutions, and thats only chapter 2!This is a very poorly written, even worse explained book.I dont mind sadistically difficult problems at the end of a chapter, if the book did a good job of teaching me the concepts and computations to answer the problem, unfortunately this book does neither.Whats funny is that our teacher started the semester by saying, he does'nt like the book, but were using it while he researches a better book for us to use.Sadly, I could have walked into a book store, and grabbed ANY physics book, and it would have been better then this one.Luckily I have several other physics books that peice together the missing information for me, but for a textbook that students depend on to learn the subject, it should'nt be required.

horrible text- worst text I've ever had to buy
I am a chemistry teacher and I am taking a college physics course as a review for an exam. The text has problems worked out but they are difficult to follow, and the problems at the end of the chapter are entirely impossible. It seems one person wrote the text and a different person wrote the end of text questions and another wrote the solutions. I am using other texts to help but unfortunately my teacher requires me to solve problems from this text. May God bless everyone who has to use this text. Teachers, professors, please rethink using this text.

Sloppy
I am not at all impressed with the 7th ed.I am now using another textbook instead of the the College Physics 7th ed required for my class. Read more

Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Science    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Science / Physics   

Reviews (3)

outstanding
I used Giancoli as my primary text in high school, and found it to be a superb text. I think those complaining of a lack of worked problems are missing the entire point of this text and the essence of studying physics. This book is about understanding physics principles and the equations you use to solve physics problems. You will find that with this understanding (certainly provided by this excellent text), the need for mindless ploughing through physics problems is lost. You will be able to solve physics problems on the basis of your conceptual understanding of the problems. So many students rely on rote learning and repetition by doing hundreds of questions. Sure, you might be able to attack similar problems for the next week or so, but as soon as you stop practicing, the skill is lost. True mastery of physics comes from appreciation of principles, not mere recognition of patterns in problems...this text will help you achieve such an appreciation.
A pretty good intro book for calculus based physics
I once taught a calculus based physics coursed using this text.I found as good as the other standard texts: Both the book by Serway and the book by Halliday and Resnick.The ideas are presented clearly, without too many words, and the examples are well picked. I suspect, as happened to me, that you will appreciate the calculus better after getting past a calculus based physics course. Despite containing a few errors, a good return on your investment relative to the cost of this text, is the supplementary Schaum's outline: Physics for Engineers and Science. Each chapter of this Schaum's reviews things concisely, and is filled with tons of worked out sample problems. Try hard to work out these problem sets first, before looking at the solutions. Your grades will reflect YOUR efforts.
Clear and nice physics book for intro students
I know physics is hard for all of us, but this book is very clear in explaining physics.It does not involve in calculus, so usually it is better for most students who never took physics.So if you did not take physics class before, I highly recommend this book because it does not use pompous or intricate words that most science textbook writers do.Not only is it an easy reading, but also it has awesome questions and problems that make you think and that check whether you know really physics.
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Subjects:  1. Applied Sciences    2. Physics    3. Science    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Algebra    6. Science / Physics   

Reviews (18)

Provides many links between these functions and composer effectiveness and strategy.
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC could have been featured in our Health Shelf section, but is reviewed here for its importance to musicians and any interested in music. It's the first to provide a comprehensive scientific analysis of how people experience music: chapters blend psychology, neuroscience, and musical examples from classical to rap to explain different facets of music and how they are perceived by the brain. Lest you think this overly scientific, it also provides many links between these functions and composer effectiveness and strategy.
Fascinating: Music listening as a personal tour through labs, studios and living rooms
Dan Levitin's "This is Your Brain on Music" is a rather unique book. I don't know any other book that bring together personal anecdotes from the music recording world, a wealth of current insights into how our brain allows us to even listen and enjoy music to the more arcane problems of how we structure our ideas into categories.
Not good
This book is carelessly written and edited, with a surprisingly large number of factual errors and misstatements of various kinds.I had high hopes for it, but I came away disappointed, even angry.Although there is some valuable material (p. 187 is great), too much is unacceptably sloppy.The music-theoretical explanations tend to be simplistic and misleading.Some are wrong.Trouble starts early, with a definition of "the A minor scale" as "the one minor scale that uses only the white notes of the piano keyboard."But this "natural" minor scale is not analogous to C major in the way Levitin is implying.The observation that Beethoven's Fifth "restates a melody using different instruments" trivializes a sophisticated musical language."Shave and a haircut" and "Gee Officer Krupke" are not the same rhythm, though Levitin says they are. (They're related, but not identical; it would have been illuminating to discuss the difference.) Mozart did not write "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at age 6 (or any other age) though he did composevariations on it.(Levitin's claim that the stress pattern in this tune is TWINkle twinkle LITtle star is peculiar, or at least highly debatable.) The definition of a "whole note" as a note that "lasts four beats" is unhelpful.The claim that 6/8 is a "somewhat common meter in which we count six beats to a measure and each eighth note gets one beat" will be news to most practicing musicians, for whom this meter normally has two beats.Schoenberg is lazily called a "contemporary" composer though he died in 1951.The note C is defined as the "dominant" note of a piece in the key of C, which is bound to confuse anyone who is subsequently taught what a "dominant" is.Another problematic sentence:"Musicians refer to the pleasing-sound chords and intervals as consonant and the unpleasing ones as dissonant."But this is not what musicians understand by consonance and dissonance.Levitin's analysis of the slow movement of the Haydn Surprise Symphony doesn't jibe with the music; he says that "the main melodic idea spans barely more than half an octave, a perfect fifth" -- and so what? -- but the first 4 bars cover an octave, and the first 8 bars an eleventh.Another puzzling sentence: "There is nothing intrinsically catlike about the word cat or even any of its syllables [sic]"And what about the author's dismissal of "attempts to please the audience through musical obsequies [sic] rather than through soul." I cannot imagine a classical musician who would not wince at "Many of the greatest musicians of our era lacked formal training.... in classical music, George Gershwin, Mussorgsky, and David Helfgott are among those who lacked formal training..." Leaving aside the "unmusicality" of the repetitive writing, it is time to stop exploiting poor David Helfgott, who, however much he suffered personally, is not considered "one of the greatest classical musicians of this era" by any serious practitioner.Levitin must be a more responsible researcher and sincere music-lover than this book suggests, and I'm sure his intentions were good.Perhaps Levitin's editor is more to blame than he himself is. The objections I've listed may seem niggling. I've listed them for two reasons: 1) it would take too much space to discuss larger issues, and 2) I think such mistakes are evidence of the book's overall carelessness.Some books I would recommend instead of this one are more technical but also more stimulating and informative, notably Music and Memory by Bob Snyder and the recent Sweet Anticipation by David Huron.
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Subjects:  1. Acoustics & Sound    2. General    3. Instruction & Study - Theory    4. Music    5. Music/Songbooks    6. Philosophy & Social Aspects    7. Psychological aspects    8. Psychology Of Music    9. Science    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Science / Acoustics & Sound   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (9)

Feynman had succeeded
Said to be THE classic textbook for physics. It is, period. Highly recommended for any serious science student as a reference (it does not contain problem sets though). Suitable for self-study, the book covers a broad range of topics. But most importantly, Feynman brought those topics to life! The reader will come away enlightened, and in awe with the workings of the universe.

buy this set, it is newly updated
Good physics book, classic and clearly writing. Highly recommended!

the Feynman Lectures on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition
Excellent set ....great for undergrad and beyond. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Science    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Science / Physics   

Reviews (32)

Love this book
A good, "deep" and complete presentation of quantum mechanics. The first chapter is great for basic ideas of QM. This is followed by a chapter on the mathematical tools of quantum mechanics and a very good chapter that lays out the postulates of quantum mechanics. Then it covers spin, the harmonic oscillator, angular momentum, and the hydrogen atom. It seems to me the book is the best around for teaching Dirac notation and matrix mechanics. Each chapter is accompanied by appendices that develop further detail or provide examples of various concepts. For help with problem solving, I recommend Quantum Mechanics Demystified and the Schaum's Outline of Quantum Mechanics. For a good reading companion, I recommend the Griffiths Quantum Mechanics book.

Comprehensive, and clear
I do not understand the reviewers who claim this book gives no exercises or good examples. These books are about the only graduate-level QM books which do. Not only that, they explore more interesting/complex material in their "complements" at the end of each chapter. This is far more than can be said of a book like Sakurai's, say, which is also a standard text.
The gold standard
This two volume set on Quantum Mechanics not only teaches the advanced undergrad or graduate student all that is important in quantum mechanics in its various formulations, it is replete with practical, real world applications in the special sections at the end of each chapter.
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Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Quantum Theory    3. Science    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Mathematics and Science    6. Science / Quantum Theory   

Subjects:  1. Dynamics    2. Mechanics - Dynamics - General    3. Physics    4. Quantum Theory    5. Science    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Classical mechanics    8. Science / Physics   

Reviews (16)

Successful textbook
This is one of the most popular and most useful calculus based physics textbook in the market. Normally if you have a textbook and some problem books such as Thinking like a physicist, Problems for Physics Students etc and work through as many problem as you can, you shall have no problem mastering the concepts and getting A's from your class.

Solid introduction to college physics for scientists and engineers
Next to older editions of Haliday and Resnick, this is probably the best introductory physics text for "college level physics," and I have seen and used most of them after 20+ years of teaching physics.The material in this text does require previous experience with physics (high school or first term algebra-trig based general physics) plus knowledge of introductory calculus.(Limits, continuity, derivatives and integrals - first term calculus, frequently taken concurrently.)I have taught from, and used earlier versions of the text and have found them, (and this), to be a good, reliable text, with good, clear explanations and contemporary applications, with few complaints from students.(Physics is a dry subject for many students - this text should help make it a little more palatable, if not interesting.)
To learn the fundamentals of physics
I had used Serway's textbook before the second author joined. Different editions may exhibit slight differences, but this book is very suitable for those who want to gain a solid fundamental in physics. I believe this book is intended to address freshmen and sophomores, who major in math, sciences and engineering and it executes this task very successfully. It requires knowledge of calculus for better understanding.
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Subjects:  1. Physics    2. Science    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Science / Physics   

Editorial Review

If Albert Einstein were alive, he would have a copy of Read more

Reviews (113)

There's Much More than Physics Here!
Penrose's is a name I remember from reading Scientific American and NYT Book Reviews in the late '60s, which is most of the reason why I bought the book despite having never done any serious study of physics, and having recently been mildly disappointed by Lisa Randall's "Warped Passages".Surely someone who has dedicated so many years to the subject and been so influential will have something interesting to say!And I've always been a sucker for doing hard work in name of fun.I'm glad I did."The Road to Reality" will have a permanent place on my bookshelf between Stephen Hawking's delightful "A Brief History of Time" and Saunders Mac Lane's "Mathematics: Form and Function".
Whoa!
I am finding this book extremely challenging.Mostly, the problem is the huge number of new concepts.I would strongly recommend this book for the young math, (hard)science, or, perhaps?, engineering student/20 something.If you have not encountered quantum mechanics or complex analysis before, this probably ain't the place to start.As most know, freshman calculus is mostly memorization and skill training akin to puzzle solving. It bears little in common with mathematical thought in the early 21st Century.This book plunges you into that thought stream as Penrose believes it applies to "reality".As someone who always wondered about the asides my textbook authors made when talking about path integrals, spin quantum numbers, or separable equations, I find this book illuminating - if only I were 20 or 30 years younger so the new concepts would sink in faster... Anyway, it is not for the layman - I'd say that if you're unfamiliar with the names Godel, Dirac, Cantor, Leibnitz, Heisenberg then you will probably find this book a huge travail.
Could have been much better.
The biggest problem with this book is its attempt to cater to several disparate audiences at once. If you happen to be an interested layman there are much better options.First of all you should know that this book, although it proports in the introduction to be self contained starting from the basics and moving up, will be impossible to read unless you have previous familiarity with the concepts in question.Many customers have said that they were happy just to get a "feel" for the "jist" of the topics he covers.Realistically, I don't see how that is possible: his chapters are that layman unfriendly.I have had a lot of Calculus and when I read his sections on Real and Complex Analysis I was shocked to discover that he treats them from a very advanced point of view all in the space of 30 pages.This is mind-blowing!Literally everything that follows the chapters on real and complex analysis will rely on the information contained in those chapters, and yet the discussion therein is, bar-none, the worst introduction to the ideas behind Calculus I have ever read.You couldn't ask for a more backwards introductory presentation of the principle ideas, and I don't know that there is a worse one in print.I feel sorry for all the people who have or will attempt to read this book and, as a result, further convince themsleves that the topics included must simply be beyond their natural mental capabilities.
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Subjects:  1. Astrophysics & Space Science    2. Cosmology    3. General    4. Mathematical Physics    5. Physical laws    6. Physics    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Science / Astrophysics & Space Science   

Reviews (37)

Awful
A nightmare...The prose is both laconic and imprecise - a combination that spells very poor readability. The book assumes too much knowledge for an undergraduate text: in order not to get confused you'd have to be comfortable with QM including Dirac notation, Hamiltonian mechanics, results from e&m in matter, atomic physics, and a good deal of thermal and statistical physics. It's actually worse than that, because the book simply uses results or assumes familiarity with some technique without stating so much as "it is well-known from X..."
Poorly written, lack of examples
Well, the negative reviews were correct.My solid state course has, unfortunately, decided to go with the Kittel 'standard' text, 8th edition.This book is difficult to learn from - largely because there is a severe shortage of quality examples and the material is not well explained throughout.
An excellent text, don't believe the bad reviews!
Solid state physics is a difficult subject because it requires a knowledge of quantum mechanics and electrodynamics as applied to condensed matter systems.Of course, it's also necessary to understand classical mechanics for many of the argurments used in say, lattice vibrations and whatnot.Unfortunately, there is no easy way in.All the other introductory solid state books that don't use any mathematics, or minimize its use, do a very poor job of really describing sold state phenomena.