Customer Reviews

College Physics (with PhysicsNow)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I used this book for physics my sophomore year, and I have mixed feelings regarding the book. On one hand, the text does not clearly and concisely explain concepts, but on the other hand, the end-of-chapter summaries and the practice problems were great preparation for tests. I doubt you will find more difficult problems than those this author gives, and your teacher would have to be a sadist to test you with problems harder than these. As another reviewer stated, you must couple this book with the lessons of a teacher - it would be very difficult to attain a firm grasp of the concepts based on this book alone. But if you're looking for concise lists of equations and challenging applications, this book will serve you well.

Where do I begin?
The chapter discussions are not clear nor are they laid out in a logical sequence.
The problems at the end of each chapter are complex with no hints or solutions guide to help you along. Some of the fomulas that are required appear to be plucked from thin air, because they are not to be found in the text.
The book has an attractive cover which blies the obscure and confusing contents.
I am a straight A student in the sciences. I consider myself competent when it comes to deciphering other peoples explinations and examples. Having said that, I would never, under any circumstances, recommend this book to a beginning Physics student.

I am taking college physics as well as my second semester of general chemistry. This book in no way compares to my chemistry text. I am a very good college student with a BS in computer science and a strong physics background,... and even for me this book is extremely hard to follow. That is the consensus among my fellow students which include a friend who already has his MBA. There is not much explanation of concepts before you jump into the problems, and there are not nearly enough example problems worked in the text. Additionally, considering this is the 6th edition I am surprised to still find errors in the text.

Don't even consider purchasing the student solution manual. I think it works out about 15 of the end of chapter problems per chapter, which is not very many.

I used this book for three quarters at my university. THe author does not do a good job presenting the material. It would help if he were a little more conceptual. If one can get a hold of the teachers solution manual and work out most of the problems, that would be sufficient to learn and get an A. But on reading the material alone, one will only become confused.

I am a student who has now been using this book for a semester. The book covers a wide range of topics, moves very quickly, and is by no means simple! Most of the bad reviews are by people who are not able to understand the book because i) the concepts are really complex or ii) they are not supplemented by classroom help. By no means is this book great, but considering how terrible some other physics books are, the new edition of this book tackles complexities in a fairly readable manner.

My name is Chris Vuille. When Jerry Faughn retired, I was selected to write the seventh edition of Serway and Faughn's College Physics (contributing author Chuck Bennett handled the website). I point out that the concerns expressed here are all directed at previous editions. In the new seventh edition, I thoroughly rewrote the text, going line by line, sometimes deleting entire pages and redoing them. I introduced numerous new example problems in a user-friendly side-by-side format. The layout people did a great job, and Ray Serway made numerous valuable contributions. You will find the seventh edition has been transformed. The market has responded by making College Physics seventh edition far and away the leading such text in America. I listened to you, as did Ray Serway, Jerry Faughn, and Thomson Publishing, and the result is the knowledge you need, the way you can understand it. I will work just as hard on the eighth edition. Physics is tough, and I'll do my best to help you. Thanks for your criticisms!

I purchased this book by ISBN Number. The wrong edition was sent to me. It will cost me almost as much to ship the book back as it did to buy the book. There is no way when one purchases a book by ISBN Number that you can end up with the wrong edition. Yet no one can explain this. Think twice before you order used text books where the shipping cost equals the cost of the book.

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.

This is honestly one of the most poorly written texts I have ever come across. I normally don't criticize textbooks because I'm quite a good learner, however this book really is just absolutely awful and completely useless. In fact, I've had to get 2 extra books to supplement this garbage just to clarify what the book says. It's really quite confusing, the explanations are far too short(or non-existant!) and the chapters just confuse you more than you already were. It provides about 2 small paragraphs of explanations, with one solved easy problem, then bombards you with 50 hard problems to do. I guess you're supposed to have spontaneously learned to solve them from somewhere else!

If I could give this book a zero or negative rating, I would.

I'm just finishing a pre-pharmacy program, so I've had general chemistry, organic, biology, microbiology, and calculus. I had no problems with any of the texts used for those courses. But this physics book is just terrible. The prose is so awkward, that I finally gave up trying to understand it, and bought a different book. If you are assigned this text, I hope you find a better text to use as a supplement so that your grade doesn't suffer.