13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Physics at its finest, September 16, 2010
This review is from: Introduction to Elementary Particles (Paperback)
This is possibly the best textbook on any subject that I have ever read. And when I say read I mean cover to cover, several times! (The book is now so shabby and food stained that I'm thinking of buying another copy.) The previous reviews have said it all but I want to summarize some quick points.
1. The footnotes and references are in a class of their own. You MUST read them to get full value. They contain a wealth of critical information.
2. The narrative style and method of explanation in this book makes me feel as though David Griffith is talking one-on-one to me alone. In my opinion he is peerless as a teacher!
3. The ability of this text to present some of the most complex mathematical material in an a simple, accessible and meaningful way using ordinary, jargon free language is just amazing. Of course particle physics is never going to be simple in laymen's terms but the ability to simplify the difficult ideas it contains as much as possible is critical for a student.
4. The ability of David Griffiths to make the subject - even at its most formal and driest points - exciting and alive is a rare and special skill.
5. The problems posed at the end of each section are the gateway to true understanding. They are clear, practical, have a definite educational purpose and are often fun to solve as well.
5. If you are affiliated with a university or other teaching institution and can get hold of the Solutions Manual, you MUST do so. It is a gem in itself and an essential part of the total "David Griffiths" experience.
Although this book is an absolute must if you are studying the subject and even if you are merely interested in it, there are a couple of minor quibbles that I need to bring to your attention.
Firstly, I would have loved to see a bit more on the fascinating subject of Renormalization and especially some of the deeper implications of Renormalization Theory. As it is the subject is treated in a very practical way and the book contains just enough material to enable one to solve the problems and to get on with other things. A little more would have been nice.
Secondly, and much more seriously, my copy of the book arrived with a double sided printout of 53 errata. These range from minor typos to complete show stoppers (if left uncorrected)! In fact there are so many of them, and they often have such serious effect on the text that I have broken a habit of a life-time and penciled in the corrections on the pages themselves. I would normally regard this as inexcusable vandalism but the constant referral to the errata sheet had become tiresome. I regard Wiley the publishers of this book to be one of the best technical publishers in the world and I can only guess at the glitch which let so many errors get through to the print stage. Having said this, once the errors are noted and corrected one can get back to the study and enjoyment of this fine work.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best introductory textbook on elementary particles, November 7, 2009
This review is from: Introduction to Elementary Particles (Paperback)
One of the most interesting and most intellectually far-reaching areas of modern Physics is Particle Physics. No other area of Physics has as conceptually profound implications for our understanding of how the world works on the very fundamental level, and nowhere else have the experiments been as monumental and imposing. And yet, particle Physics is rarely if ever taught in undergraduate Physics curriculum. The reason often given for this is that mathematical sophistication required for fully understanding this subject is far beyond the capability of most undergraduates. However, if done properly, the mathematical sophistication need not be beyond what is required in an upper level Electricity and Magnetism or Quantum Mechanics courses. To the contrary - the most important results in Particle Physics can be obtained by mathematical means that are not nearly as demanding as those in those other two upper level Physics courses. A perfect example of this are the textbooks by David Griffiths. He has been well known to generations of Physics students who had used his Electricity and Magnetism or Quantum Mechanics textbooks. These textbooks have become a de-facto standard for teaching those subjects. These textbooks are also known for many very demanding problems that require many, many pages of mathematical manipulation. And yet, most of these manipulations are much harder than anything you'll encounter in Griffiths' "Introduction to Elementary particles." There is still a collection of worked-out examples, but nowhere nearly at the level of what one finds in his other books. The presentation is characteristically accessible and pedagogical. A considerable amount of space is devoted to historical and experimental considerations, and this textbook also serves as a useful history of the development of particle Physics.
The second edition greatly streamlines some presentations and introduces a few new topics that have been of interest in particle Physics in recent decades - most notably the neutrino oscillations. The chapter on future developments is mostly descriptive, and mercifully short on certain topics that have enjoyed a lot of attention lately but have been woefully short on experimental verifications, such as supersymmetry and string theory. In the end we are left off with a picture of current understanding of particle Physics that shows this field of research both as a tremendous success and still a work in progress. Hopefully in the upcoming decades we'll be able to fill in many of the holes and come up with a more streamlined understanding of nature at the most fundamental level. Until then, textbooks like this one will be the best and surest way of getting the basic facts about the nature of elementary particles.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful, clear, readable., February 15, 2010
This review is from: Introduction to Elementary Particles (Paperback)
Doing physics homework is rarely truly fun, but a good textbook can at least reduce the stress and confusion/frustration levels associated with working problems and learning material. This book is basically what I said in the title: Helpful, clear, and readable, which are three things that are essential in any informational book yet sadly lacking in so many physics textbooks. Excellent book. Also, there are amusing footnotes sprinkled throughout the text, including some anecdotes/commentaries on physics pillars such as Niels Bohr.
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