Customer Reviews

College Physics (6th Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

For someone looking to get an overview of basic physics, this book is great. The problems in the back of each chapter start out easy then become more and more challenging. In several chapters there are photos of some physics instructors doing experiments we all want to do; one of the best is an experiment where someone is sitting in a chair holding a very large CO2 fire extinguisher and... rockets off! It does a very good job of explaining Newton's laws. (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) If you purchase this text, make sure to get the associated study guide. It not only provides a review of each chapter, it goes through step by step problem solving on slected odd numbered problems. The only caveat is that some of the wording is vague; there was an attempt to explain physics without calculus. As a result, some subjects must be taken on faith. If life sciences is your major then this text does a great job of explaining physics.

Physics is a difficult subject. This text does an admirable job of making a difficult subject easier.

There are advantages and disadvantages to disallowing the writer to use calculus in writing the material. Some formulas require calculus to derive and so must be either taken on faith as true, or the derivations looked up in a calculus based test. Fortunately the times when this issue comes up are few enough to not seriously hamper the flow of the book.

This book may be read as a first book on Physics. I strongly recommend the book Conceptual Physics by Hewitt for a running start at the subject.

Members of the lay public interested in physics may read both of these texts, as they are at introductory level and contains material on classical as well as modern physics.

The units are in SI ( metric ) which simplifies the math.

The Wilson and Buffa text has Color photos of natural phenomenon and situations that illustrate the physics under discussion. There examples are intermixed throughout showing how to work problems involving the principles involved.

I believe this book is an important part of a well rounded education. Physics is NOT an easy topic. If it were, then Newton would have developed theories on relativity and gravity waves. This book does what it was designed to do, that is assist beginners in starting their journey.

I read the book. I found it to be fun.

Katherine Rogers
Yes, Real girls do physics.

One of this book's authors is a professor at my university. While he himself did not teach my physics class, he definitely conveyed our school's philosophy of "learn by doing" through the use of numerous pictures, diagrams, and straightforward exercises at the end of each chapter. I thought the book explains the general ideas and concepts of physics very well, without requiring a calculus background to understand the material.

While I haven't had the pleasure of having Buffa for a professor (and by all accounts I'm planning on avoiding it), the book really isn't that bad. The sample problems are helpful and the escalating difficulty is appreaciated.

The downside is that he tends to get bogged down in little details that aren't really as important as he makes them out to be--especially considering that the book is for people who don't need calc-based Physics (read life science majors, and all non-science related majors who need a GE), and occasionally the problems seem totally unrelated to what has been presented in the text.

Still, as far as text books go, this one isn't bad and if you have a good teacher to go along, it'll serve you just fine.

I have used at least 4 different College Physics textbooks during the past 10 years I have been teaching. This one is the worst of the lot.
This is a non-calculus based text used for biology, geology, chem and other science majors, but not for physics majors

I find the conceptual explanations confusing and the wording awkward.
The multimedia applets are of inferior quality (compared to those available with the Serway textbook)

The text and solutions are rife with typos and blatant errors.
I have gone through 4 chapters completely and done EVERY problem at the end of the chapter, and found 3 -4 errors for each chapter just in the end of chapter problems.

Examples within the text sometimes refer to material that has never been covered or skip important steps.
For example: I have had confused students come to see me many times when they do not understand where the answers came from for problems that are supposed to be fully worked out within the chapters. Usually
some clever shortcuts to a solution are skipped when these problems are presented. This leads to great confusion for the students and obstructs their learning.

Another example: Recently, the solution to a problem in Chapter 16 involved the use of "geometric mean". Such a concept will be unfamiliar to anyone who is not a physics or math major. And, it is never mentioned or explained anywhere in the text. The answer is simply presented with no explanation of where it came from.

If I had any choice in the matter I would never use this text.
Aesthetically, unlike other physics textbooks, it is also unavailable in softcover making it a rather wieldy tome for students to lug around.

I really do not recommend this book for any high school students struggling in Physics. I am a junior who is in a physics honor course. My class uses this book and I can say for sure that 9/10 of my classmates dread this book. The authors' phrasings are too complex and very detailed. When I read I can not help to feel that I am reading some lab report. Yeah, it may seem like "a nice review" for some people. People who are actually in college or majoring in physics!! My review just goes out to high school students who are looking for some supplement or extra help in physics. This with certainty, will not help you! It'll confuse you even more.

I'm an engineer who has taken many physics classes and taught physics once at a community college. Now one of my children is using this in school for learning AP physics B. I can honestly say if this had been my first exposure to physics, I'd be in a different profession.
I find some of the choices to emphasize certain things quite strange. For example, the book spends an inordinately long time on the difference between speed and velocity and then the author uses them wrong in a problem at the end of the chapter. But then elastic collisions don't get nearly the space I'd give (or other books give) them.
Also, this book's explanation of torque is one of the worst explanation of a technical concept I've ever seen. I've only read through to chapter 7 so I'm sure there is a lot more to complain about.
I dug up one of my 25 year old textbooks and my daughter uses that instead to learn from and gets everything much more easily.

The book is not easy to follow. This book has an online portion but the access code they provide is difficult to read and the site is difficult to get help through because they ask for the code. The sight also constantly tells you that you haven't completed information that was never asked for. I even when back over the page and never found the box they were referring to. I went to the site because the material presented in the book is difficult to follow. It does not provide step by step instructions. "Basic Physics-a self teaching guide" is much better. I hope some teachers read this and look into other books for their classes.

The book is a good physics book. It helps me study for test and when I read before class it helps me follow the lecture better. It explains topics pretty clearly and has examples. The graphs, figures, illustrations, and their explanations are very helpful.

If you want a competitive advantage in this class, buy the ANNOTATED INSTRUCTORS EDITION. It is available used from the Amazon marketplace for only $99.

Instructors often use the suggested problems in the instructor's edition for their quizzes and tests.