Customer Reviews

Astrophysics in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (Princeton))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maoz presents a book that is well suited to a one term undergraduate course, of say 2 lectures a week. There is enough material, but not too much, so that all of it can be reasonably covered by the lecturer and understood by a typical student.

This being a book on astrophysics, there is little of the descriptive observational material of a general astronomy book. Instead, it assumes a physics background of at least a first undergraduate year with physics courses. So there is assumed a familiarity with simple optics, blackbody curves, a little bit of quantum mechanics, and some good old classical orbital mechanics. All this suffices to define the basics of how a star forms and burns, under a tradeoff between collapsing under its own gravitation and the opposing outward force of nuclear reactions and photon pressure.

There are also 3 chapters on simple General Relativity. Certainly not at the level of Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, or Weinberg. But good enough to illustrate ideas like the Hubble Constant and redshift.

I have completed reading this textbook, appreciating the conciseness of the material and completeness of this topic when compared to larger and more rigorous texts. Diagrams are plentiful and explanations flow well, but for the independent reader a more polished, better illustrated text would work better. This physics book would work well with a class supplemented with explanations, more mathematical examples, and correlating images.

Astrophysics in a Nutshell is an absolutely excellent introduction to the subject for those with a reasonable physics background, but from outside the field. I am recommending it heartily to all my friends and colleagues who want a concise overview of this vast field.

I was assigned this textbook for an advanced undergraduate astrophysics course. I found it to be ambiguous and difficult to use effectively. Many of the equations seemed to come from nowhere, and were presented with little explanation.

I suspect that this textbook could be helpful for those who are already quite familiar with the material, as a reference text. However, I do not think that it is an effective classroom text to be used on its own.

This book is NOT meant to be an in-depth look at all of astrophysics, but rather a concise overview. Hence the "in a nutshell" title! This book is appropriate for educators who plan on teaching a semester or even quarter course with an emphasis on breadth of knowledge rather than depth. Furthermore, students will find this book EXTREMELY useful for reviewing basic astrophysics and for preparing for exams (such as the PhD qualifying exam). The problems at the end of the book are wonderful, and are at a level that undergraduates should be able to complete them. This book does assume a basic background in both physics and astronomy. Also, since the book is so concise, it's not a good book to learn from for the first time, however as I mentioned, it is an excellent book if supplemented by lectures. Bottom line, if you are trying to learn this material for the first time, this book is not for you. However, if you're looking for a good book to adopt for class, or you already "know" the material but want to review, this book is for you.

This is a wonderful, concise text. It gives a no B.S. overview of Astrophysics. There is no fluff, and only important results are derived. There is no wasted space in this book. If you want a quick book to get your feet wet in astrophysics, this is the book for you. If you are a junior or senior physics major, you should be able to read it and work through all the problems within in about month. To do this I would try to work through 2 chapters a week, which is probably about 12-15 hours a week at most.

The tone of the text is very good and it is quite readable. It is organized well. The author does a great job of helping the student develop PHYSICAL intuition. The text is focused on the physics and not being mathematically rigorous. The author should consider writing more texts.

This is a great introductory book. It is by no means meant to be extremely detailed on any particular topic. If you want an introductory book that tries to be detailed in all aspects buy "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics" by Carroll and Ostlie. But who has time to read a Carroll & Ostlie's 1300 page manifesto? Astrophysics in a Nutshell is only ~230 pages!

This text was used with my Astronomy undergradute class for the Fall 2007 semester. My professor simply paraphrased and verbally expounded upon certain topics in the book leading to a boring lecture; and furthermore, I haven't learned anything more than if I had picked up this book myself.

Here are some problems I have with the book:
-I found on several instances that there was the classic physics text book faux pax, 'and as the reader can easily see or do on their own, this equals this'. Would it really be that hard to take 2 sentences to explain what is going on? We are supposed to learn from a text book, not guess as to how things are done.

-Some of the problems having little to do with what was actually covered in the chapter. In a good text book, you should be able to reference concepts AND equations in the chapter to use in working through a problem. What is the point of introducing a topic and then having a problem essentially say, 'ignore all that, and use this simplification'. That completely nullifies the entire point of introducing the topic in the chapter.


The bottom line is that this book should NOT be used as a textbook for an undergradute astronomy course. One should thoroughly learn specific topics that can be continually built upon in later classes. This book glosses over a lot of topics, introduces things conceptually and very briefly that you won't be able to learn in depth until later after more physics.

It's a good reference book for graduates. It is NOT a good textbook, by any stretch of the imagination, for undergraduates; unless, of course, you have an amazing professor which seem few and far between in Astronomy undergrad.