Customer Reviews

Mathematical Methods of Physics (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would not say Mathews & Walker [MW] is better than other books such as Arfken & Weber or Boas. But I recommend this book because it is VERY DIFFERENT than others. If Arfken is like a reference book, MW is like a lecture note. It does not cover every bits and pieces; So as another reviewer wrote below, MW is not for those who are not familiar with Differential Equations, Linear Algebra and Complex Variables (these subjects are almost the core mathematical courses which a physics student must take).

But for those who have some knowledge of above mentioned mathematics, by reading MW carefully, you will be nourished with incredible amount of mathematical insight which physicists use.

Also, you will be happy to know that this book was evolved from the course originally based on lectures by Feynman while he was at Cornell and was still a young professor just come out from Los Alamos. Feynman later said that from the experience at Los Alamos he knew which mathematical methods worked and was useful, and he tried to teach those skills in his course. MW is still full of that spirit.

The book is relatively slim than other mathematical methods books, and really fun to read. You will find small but valuable facts which could not be found anywhere else scattered throughout the book.

This is my favorite book on mathematical physics. Others are good for exhaustive reference (Morse and Feshbach) or mathematical rigor (Courant and Hilbert), but if you just want to learn how to solve the problems, get this book. It is based on a course that Feynman gave and his mark is upon it, even if he didn't write it.

This is a very good book on mathematical methods for physicist and should be used together with Arfken or Byron/Fuller. It really complements espacially Arfken's book, since it covers aspects not treated there. Just one very illustrative things is the treatment of integral equations. It gives you a direct glimpse of path integrals by demonstrating the use of graphs for solving intergral equations and thus gives a deeper insight into it. It is really an excellent complement espacially for those who have to work with Arfken.

This is a very nice text covering a large number of topics in "physical mathematics" (if I may steal Sommerfeld's description). The sections on special functions and applications of complex analysis are wonderful. This is a great book to use in conjuction with Jackson's E&M text; whenever a fellow grad student asked me this year about some Jackson problem, it turned out that a very relevant discussion was given in M&W.

A small warning: while it's possible to learn complex analysis directly from this text through the large number of applications covered, I wouldn't recommend it- my recommendation would be Churchill and Brown.

Very good book that really teaches you the methods and their use. I learned quite a lot from it. Actually, my education in mathematical methods was based on Matthews, Walker, on Sommerfeld's "Partial Differential Equations of Physics" and on Whittaker, Watson's "Modern Analysis", in an order of increasing difficulty. I learned from Matthews especially tricks involving the Dirac delta-function. It really excells at that.

I was hesitant in getting this book because of it's publishing date. Not to say other 'classics' are not good (many are great), but some of the older mathematical books seem to pride themselves on being esoteric.

I bought the book and happy I did. I only wish I had it in grad school. It is many times easier to read than Arfken, and has many useful examples. Now that I'm out of school, I refer to this book in figuring out how to solve (approximately) some of the equations that I encounter in the workforce.

For the self-study (or refresher) this book is easy to read and follow.

The book interestingly starts off with differential equations, and about a quarter into the book, goes into vectors and matrices. The continuity of the book is great, since it works it's way into eigenfunctions (Green's theorem). This book continues it's development into other areas of mathematical physics such as differential geometry (~20pgs) and group theory (~40 pages).

Most mathematical physics textbooks are huge tomes (Arfken), multiple volume sets (Courant and Hilbert), or both (Morse and Feshbach). This book covers the essentials in a reader-friendly way without pages and pages of exposition. The discussion of integral equations with separable kernels is a perfect example, rather than going on and on with the theory, Mathews and Walker just give an example that illustrates the technique; this approach makes it easier to follow than the rest. The book was originally based on lectures by Feynman, and his mark is apparent on it. If you just want to see how to solve problems and aren't interested in long-winded discussions of the range of applicability of a technique, this is your book.

I have owned this book since I took my first undergraduate mathematical physics course in 1972. Since that time, however, I have not really found Mathews and Walker to be terribly useful. My problem is that it is difficult for me to learn to use mathematical methods if they are presented without proof. For example, the Theory of Residues is used in many parts of this book--but it is presented without first proving Cauchy's Theorem. Part of my difficulty is that if I do not go through the proof, I feel that I am not aware of the limits of the method in question. Also, the proof allows me to develop an intuitive feel for the method. That said, I can see that this book might be good as a reference to sort of remind you how to use a method that you had learned earlier in a more complete treatment. Or, by perusing M&W you might come upon a method that you can research in more depth though a more complete book.

This is a very nice little book. The explanations are concise and to the point, and the wealth of examples make it easy to really learn the material. I took away a star simply because it is cheaply printed and falls apart, which is unacceptable for such a pricey book.

As many other reviews said, if you are using this as a textbook for a class where you are just learning the material, this book is useless. If you already know the material, well, you won't need it then either because you probably already have more useful books in your library. The homework problems tend to be long and difficult, but generally instructive.

It is a very cheaply bound paperback book. My lightly used copy is already starting to fall apart. Any teacher asking a student to spend $120 for this book is being really irresponsible. If it is required for a class you are taking, you will be better off photocopying the pages with homework problems.