Customer Reviews

A Guide to Physics Problems: Part 2: Thermodynamics, Statistical Physics, and Quantum Mechanics (Language of Science)

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I simply did the problems in this book and then passed the Caltech physics phd qualifying exam for quantum and statistical mechanics. The difference between this book and the standard Yung-kuo book for practice problems is brevity. Yung-kuo simply has too many problems, many of which are very similar, teaching no new concepts. Cahn, on the other hand, has picked a smaller but more meaningful subset of problems. There are few enough problems that you can do them all in a reasonable amount of time, but enough that you hit all the major concepts. I highly recommend it for anyone studying for physics quals, or for an undergraduate with a couple weeks of time who is about to do the GRE. I realize that the GRE doesn't have in-depth problems, but by doing in-depth problems you master the concepts that the GRE does test on.

This book provides elegant physics problems (and solutions) from the preliminary doctoral exams of some prestigious universities. Very good for preparing these exams and also gaining problem solving skills in physics (not only for exams).

With these problems, I also understood some concepts which were not clear before. This book can, therefore, be used as a source for applications of the corresponding subjects. I strongly recommend it.

Finding a collected set of problems in thermodynamics and quantum mechanics with their solutions is a challenge. A Guide to Physics Problems Part 2 answers that challenge well, though imperfectly. Here are the book's strengths:

- The problems are varied and cover lots of ground.

- There are not hundreds of problems just for the sake of having hundreds of problems. Problems are selected carefully to make sure that they don't overlap concepts. This means you'll do a few problems on each topic, with each problem requiring different skills and techniques. Repitition is thankfully minimized.

- Problems are written clearly and succintly.

- All problems seem "fair". These are concepts I would expect to see tested on graduate level exams.

But there are also weaknesses:

- The solutions are not always crystal clear. At times, I found myself wondering where particular equations came from.

- I found certain concepts not covered well. For example, in the quantum mechanics section, I don't recall any problems regarding free particle states.

Overall, this is a solid and useful purchase. While not perfect, it's still one of the better resources out there for learning thermo and QM.

The idea behind this book is good, and the selection of problems is okay. However, there are flaws that undermine the usefulness of many of the problems. All too often there is not enough information given in a problem to solve it, and the solution will assume values for mass, temperature, etc. (i.e. pull numbers out of nowhere).

Some solutions are wrong. The first problem in the book, for example - "Sure, it's fine to sit in a sealed chamber when an atomic bomb explodes. There's no change in temperature because no molecules are escaping. What is this 'potential energy' of which you speak?"

Also, a number of the problems are not as self-contained a qual questions tend to be, and rely on you having solved other problems first (which makes it difficult to pick and choose the problems you do from this book).

And the pictures... are cute, but they are worse than useless. For example, look at P.4.3 and tell me that you expected them to assume the balloon was less than 2km from the Earth. It looks like it's farther away than the Moon. Combine this picture with the lack of information given in the problem and you have no idea what density to pick. (I used the density of the interstellar medium because of the picture. They assume the density of air at the surface of the Earth!)

It's worth looking at nonetheless, but don't buy it. It's put together in far too sloppy a fashion.