Customer Reviews

Classical Mechanics (Pt.1)

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I think this *would* have been an excellent book if it had been extensively proofread. However, it was not, and there are typos left and right. If a second edition comes out that fixes these typos and adds even modestly to the content, I would HIGHLY reccomend it, but as it stands, there are just too many mistakes. I disagree with the reviewer who said that Chow gets "hung up" on the mathematics though. I think he does an excellent job with the mathematics, as linear algebra and calculus are truly the only prereqs. but he gets you thinking in a more mathematically sophisticated manner that is essential for anyone who wants to be able to read higher level physics/math texts. Please Mr. Chow, make a 2nd Edition!

There's a mistake on almost every page! (Probably typeset by Mr. McGoo.) If it wasn't for all the mistakes, this book would be very promising. The chapter on relativity is real bad though, so be careful. Also, it's very obvious that Dr. Chow copied many sections from Marion and Thornton almost verbatim. The chapter on Lagrange's method needs some improvement, especially on its coverage of the calculus of variations and Hamilton's principle. Hopefully, Dr. Chow will significantly improve the second edition. Wait until then

Dr. Chou suffers from the same problem as does Dr. Wangsness (of E&M fame): he gets lost in mathematical formulation while not elucidating on important principles. Especially bad is the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian chapter, which is rather incomprehensable unless it is already understood by the reader, at which point it is superfluous.