Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences [Hardcover]

Mary L. Boas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0471198269 | ISBN-13: 978-0471198260 | Edition: 3

Now in its third edition, Mathematical Concepts in the Physical Sciences provides a comprehensive introduction to the areas of mathematical physics. It combines all the essential math concepts into one compact, clearly written reference.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Solutions Manual available. -- The publisher, John Wiley & Sons --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Updates the original, comprehensive introduction to the areas of mathematical physics encountered in advanced courses in the physical sciences. Intuition and computational abilities are stressed. Original material on DE and multiple integrals has been expanded. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 864 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 3 edition (July 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471198269
• ISBN-13: 978-0471198260
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 1.5 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Mathematical Physics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars indispensable Mathematical hanbook for physics students, August 14, 2002

By 

"quantumsean" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

To put it quite simply, if you are a physics student, you must own this book. What does this book do for you? Consider this...

In my school, we do not have a mathematical methods course for science, so I decided to take on a math minor to take all the classes neccesary to do physics "right." This included a class on ODEs, Fourier Series & PDEs, Linear Algebra, and Complex Variables. These classes, although helpful, cover a lot of stuff that is not quite useful for understanding physics concepts, often undermining or dampening the stuff that is actually applicable.

What makes this book so great is that it combines all the essential math concepts into one compact, clearly written reference. If I could do it all over again, I would easily rather take a two semester Math Methods course (like they do in many schools) using a book like Boas than take all these obtuse math courses. With this book, it makes it so handy to review previously learned concepts or actually learn poorly presented topics ( for a physicist anyway) in mathematics classes... (Things like Coordinate Transformations, Tensors, Special Functions & PDEs in spherical & cylindrical coordinates, Diagonilzation, the list goes on.....)

Keep this gem handy when doing homework and studying for exams, learning the math tools from this book enables you to concentrate squarely on the physics in your other textbooks... (since mathematical background information, understandably, is often cut short...)

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for those who need applied mathematics., April 22, 2007

By 

Keith Dow "Keith Dow" (Folsom, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book for undergraduates in science and engineering. This book is not for mathematics majors. So anyone who complains about the proofs or lack of rigor is off target. You are not the intended audience.

I include the chapter titles below since they indicate the coveraqe of the book.

1. Infinite series, power series

2. Complex numbers

3. Linear algebra

4. Partial differentiation

5. Multiple integrals

6. Vector analysis

7. Fourier series and transforms

8. Ordinary differential equations

9. Calculus of variations

10. Tensor analysis

11. Special functions

12. Series solutions of differential equations, legendre, bessel, hermite, and laguerre functions

13. Partial differential equations

14. Functions of a complex variable

15. Probability and statistics

Enjoy!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise Reference, March 10, 2006

By 

Frank Carnley (Altoona PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

I used this book for a one-semester, senior-level, math-physics-course. At the time of the class, I used the book for the homework problems-mostly. While in graduate school I used the book as a refresher on Laurent Series and residues. When used as a reference, I have yet to find a better text. A well written section on the calculus of variation is very useful as it is rarely taught in undergraduate math courses. To fully take advantage of Boas, I would suggest that you take a proper math course sharing the title of all 15 chapters of her text, and use Boas as a reference. If you are too impatient to study that much math, then please do not suggest this book lacks detail. Further, if you are in high school and understand that properties of orthogonally can be used to find the solutions of most separable, linear-PDEs then there is no need to study this book (another reviewer suggested the topics were written at a high school level).

I would suggest this text without hesitation for anyone in the physical and mathematical sciences-physics, applied math, chemistry, mechanics, acoustics, etc. Also, this book is as `cookie-cutter' as you want it to be. Just change some boundary conditions or make up some unique forcing functions and the section on PDEs becomes a lot of fun.

A great study aid, a great tool for comprehensive exams, and a great reference.