Customer Reviews

Introductory Physics with Calculus (as a Second Language ) Mastering Problem-Solving

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I suspect the 5 star review is by someone with the company, this book is actually pretty good. Each chapter covers some of the more common problems you will come across along with some very good diagrams. The visual component of this book is one of its strengths. It is by no means a comprehensive book and I'm sure there are more challenging problems out there. Overall it does a nice job of focusing on what you need to know. That being said I think it was a little over priced. The book is pretty small and it doesn't cover topics like fluids or harmonic motion. If it was 15-20 I would give it 5 stars.

This is a book for 1st year university students demonstrating the key points of physics problem solving. It covers just basic mechanics and electricity & magnetism. It says calculus on the cover but this is mostly confined to the later E&M chapters. As such, it could be used in high school, too. The example problems are more complex than what's encountered in high school but it's still useful.

This book is much better than the similarly entitled "Introductory Physics with Algebra as a Second Language: Mastering Problem-Solving" by Stuart E. Loucks, also published by Wiley. Instead of telling people how to think about problems like Loucks does, Barrett has example after example showing you how to solve them along with appropriate commentary. This is the best way to learn - repetition, repetition, repetition.

In a few of the problems I find Barrett makes the solutions a bit more elaborate than they need to be but that's a minor quibble.

It's supplementary material and I find the price a bit high @ $28 for such a thin book (< 300 pages). Same goes for Loucks' book. Find either book used or borrow at your local library.

Barrett has also done Fundamentals of Physics, Student Study Guide (ISBN 0471779563) which accompanies the 8th edition of Halliday/Resnick.

competitor books, calculus based: How to Solve Physics Problems by Robert Oman & Daniel Oman; Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science by Michael Browne; Understanding Physics by Michael Mansfield & Colm O'Sullivan (textbook)

I've had a tough time trying to make use out of the heavy textbooks and workbook problems that never seemed to help. The amazing thing with this book is that it keeps it on a simple level and breaks every concept down. It teaches you to recognize certain problems instead of trying to pull your hair out with an ugly set of data. I know there are others out there trying to solve the physics crisis but this is the tool for the job. Sure I will use the heavy text for reference but when it comes to solving actual problems this book is the one. It has equations that are not as complicated as the textbook ones and tells you which ones to use where and in what case. From the early kinematics to mixed circuits this book does it all. I would have to say that it is worth it's weight in gold, to be honest.

I have a terrible professor. I found this book more helpful in explaining the basics than he is. I do not by any means think this book is a replacement, but it helped for sure. We are using only my professor's own material, it is all online and mostly the equations and very little explanation. This helped and I think it would be very nice to have to complement a traditional text book. As a whole the second language books are great!

I bought this book just before taking a university physics course. I must say that the examples reiterate the material very well, and emphasize the important points from example to example. Although the book is limited to specific topics (i.e. it does not cover thermodynamics among other things), I felt it was thoroughly organized and concise. It helped immensely.

I have looked for a book on physics with calculus and found a great shortage of them. There are alot of College Physics supplmental books but very few University Physics ones. Having used the series for Organic Chemistry I would reccoment the series.