Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Physics

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book saved me in my first physics class. Working through the example problems really helped me when the teacher was obtuse. Most of basic physics that I know now I learned from this text. I found it slow reading, but what engineering/physics text is not? If you're looking to be spoon-fed the Understanding of Physics, then this book is not it. If you're looking to do well in class, then this book is worth the time and effort. My high regard for this book is biased by my abysmally low regard for the "teacher" who taught me less physics ideas than I can count with one hand of fingers. But when it's 1 am in the morning, you have a physics test in 9 hours, and you can only have one text, this is definitely it.

Halliday certainly does an excellent at making the student understand the basic and essential concepts of physics. His text is by far the most simple and best arranged compared to other authors such as Serway, and keeps the student motivated to learn further.

I first opened this book at the beginning of last summer, having known absolutely nothing at all about Physics. Using this book as my sole resource, I self-studied for the AP Physics C exam and often used this book in lieu of my school's Physics B text for its simplicity and ease of understanding. The 5's on all three of my exams were in no doubt attributed to Halliday's great ability to teach the material.

However, I will admit that the problems that are presented in this book are short of the perfection reached in Halliday's ability to teach physics. There are an ample amount of problems per unit, about 100 per chapter, which is by far plenty. However, the majority of the problems are too hard to solve given the examples in the book and definitely require further studying and experience with physics problem.

On the otherhand, the main reason I chose this book over others is because of its availability of Instructors Solutions Manual, which has every single problem solved in the text. The manual can easily be found on the internet through google, which saves you from the trouble of only being able to solve odd problems and a often lame student's solutions manual.

Very interesting and dense book to help you understand the fundamental properties of big(ger) things.
Some bonuses:
Lots of problems
Interesting associations given to perk interests
Not too much history (through I do appreciate remembering the true heroes of yore)
Thick enough to fend off flying objects, symbolic of remonstration, from near-retirement professor in response to happily given wrong answers
Laminated enough to proof against drool for the back row students

=)

More than thirty years ago, when I was an engineering student, my physics "Bible" was Halliday & Resnick, Physics for Students of Science and Engineering, 1st Edition. This is a book that has aged gracefully. While the basic physics concepts were retained, the examples have been updated in each revision to keep up with the technology advances. Now in its ninth edition since Walker started to collaborate with the previous authors, it is still one of the most enjoyable readings in elementary physics. I recommend it without reservation.

If there is one book that I should say had most impact on my life, then it would be this one. This is the book that got me interested in Physics. I am from India and in India there are these institutions known as IITs, every year around 300,000 people attempt the examination to get admission and only 3000 are selected. This book got me into the IITs. The problems in the end were not really that difficult as they are for the exam for IITs but the way they explain the concept makes you competent enough to solve such problems. I understood concepts from this book but tried problems from other books where I can get more difficult problems to attempt.

My first Halliday text book was the one I used in AP physics in high school, and I have used it ever since. This edition is only an improvement on the earlier one and worth the money if you have it.
Quality: Halliday has always offered some of the best explanations of tough physics concepts on the market. The authors understand the student perspective well.
Exercises: I feel the exercises reflect the topics and test key concepts well. While having more questions is always nice, I am satisfied with how many are provided because I can do only so many pulley or torque questions before wanting to move on to the next topic.
Overall this is a great text book that all physics majors and top faculty are probably very familiar with. For the majority of physics students in the first or second year in college, this should be the only physics book you need.

This book does a great job of summing up physics concepts without mindlessly throwing walls of equations and text at you like other books tend to. Also has tons upon tons of practice problems, many of which are very clever or humorous to keep you interested as you practice and learn physics. The companion site is pretty useful as well, but a bit limited.

If you are buying this book for use in high school, you should find a different book. This book requires the use of calculus and problems in here shouldn't even be attempted without learning it. It comes with many problems at the end of each chapter. With the instructor's manual that is about 70~90 questions in every chapter. However, the explanation and examples don't provide enough information to solve all the problems in the book. Great as a supplement but cannot replace lectures.

Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday and Resnick is a great book. Buy this book and study it, do the problems, and you will ace the course. It is the selfish professors and bad textbooks that make physics too hard. Physics is not hard, it is only interesting. So please don't even think twice about it, this is what you need. If your school is using Baeur and Westfall University Physics, don't buy it cos it is crap. It is the worst book in physics. Halliday and Resnick is what you need, especially for the novice student. One thing I like about it is the way they solve the problems. They give you the conceptual plan to the way they solved the problems. Physics is about problem solving and Halliday does it, no one does it better. I used Halliday's 7th Ed for Phy 231, and it helped me a lot. I also recommend Young and Freedman University Physics. But personally, I like Fundamentals of Physics

As a student in a course which used this book, I would like to share my experiences. Firstly, as my title suggests, this book is quite a disappointment for me.
I have a few major complaints:
Firstly, concerning how much calculus is used, I can honestly say Halliday, Resnick and Walker make a huge mistake by limiting the amount of calculus used in favor of algebra. The whole point of calculus is to formulate mechanics beautifully! algebra on the other hand is tedious and ugly at best. The very first section spends time deriving the kinematics equations through the use of algebra. WHY GOD WHY?
Secondly, the definition of a line integral is very tangentially touched, but never fully introduced, and when the author does evaluate line integrals, he shies awway from the standard definition; he formulates F*dr as |F|cos(theta)|dr|, then the author often assumes a path such that theta=180 degrees. The book's use of this "special" line intgral is discouraging to any student who learned about line integration in another course, not to mention, it is incorrect. Force on the other hand is introduced as the derivative of potential enegry... maybe in one dimension, correctly it should be formulated as the gradient.
The author runs away from calculus for some unknown reason and in the process makes learning very unmotivated, cumbersome and even bordering on incorrect! He encourages students to make up for a lack of calculus with silly algebra tricks rather than formulating a mathematically correct description. If you wish to talk about mechanics in 3 dimensions, you will need vector calculus,and that is a hard fact.
Lesson to learn: Appealing to a broader audience (those who don't know multivariable calc) comes at the cost of alienating those who know the math.