Customer Reviews

Essential Mathematical Methods for Physicists: and Engineers

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

 

 

Strengths:
- Fairly complete coverage of the various properties of special functions. The introduction of these subjects is not good, but one could use it as a refrence for formulas.

Weaknesses:
- Topic selection and rigor are weak. Many important areas of mathematical physics are skipped over, or short changed. For example, the section on tensors is far too short. In addition, everything is introduced in index notation instead of coordinate free form. Also, the group theory section is very weak (not to mention short). The rotation group and lorentz group are discussed briefly, but there is no systematic introduction to lie groups or other important topics.
- The book seems to focus on special functions, and solving differential equations. However, it does not introduce hilbert spaces well, and therefore the presentation seems like a bewildering array of bessel this and fourier that, without anything to tie it all together.

Overall, I'd say the book sacrifices depth by covering too many topics. If you want to really succeed you're going to need a full course each on linear (& some multilnear) algebra, mutlivariable calc & vector analysis, differential equations, complex analysis, differential geometry and group theory. If you want a condensed version, get byron and fuller. It's written systematically, and strikes (in my opinion) a perfect balance between rigor and pragmatism.

This book is much better as a reference book for someone who already understands the material then for a student just learning. The book covers everything from Coordinate Systems to Calculus of Variantions, PDQ's, and Special Unitary Groups in highly dense sections, with little or no examples.

The problems are extraordinarly tough, and they seem disjointed, lacking any real focus and coherence, exp. towards the front of the book. Once you get past the physics in the first part, and into the math section of the book, it slows down, and really explains ideas, as well as providing excellent problems to work.

I would recommend this book as a reference, but there are better books out there. For reference, I would also recommend Schaums Outlines; and for a text book, I would recommend David Hilbert's Mathematical Methods Vol I, and Vol II.

I used this book for an undergraduate math methods for physicists course. While in the class I found it very difficult to learn anything from it, as it is rather dense. I found that most websites I looked to for help cited the book though. Now I find this book to be a very useful reference. It's definitions are fairly concise and topics are not spread throughout the book. Bottom line: great reference, poor learning tool.

This book is perfect for my needs. It is just what I needed to review my mathematical skills for my Master in Physics.

This undergraduate text makes Arfken really accessible. The new examples are great and most are from various fields of physics. This has helped me in my mechanics, E and M, and quantum mechanics classes. The long index is complete and really helps to find things quickly. The chapter on probability & statistics explains concepts especially well.