Customer Reviews

Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering: A Comprehensive Guide

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

 

 

This is one of the best mathematical methods book, very readable.
It has very clear explainations, in each topic it's developing from basic intuitions until it reaches the genralized equations, several detailed examples help a reader checks his understanding and follows the authors.

The contents are very well-organized and self-contained, one can looks directly at the topic he wants to know. It's lucid and normally answer and teach a reader what he wants to do. All definitions make sense and a reader can accepts easily it's a smart thing to do math that way.

It also serves as a one-stop, if you feel confused when you're reading because your background knowledge is not strong enough, just search for the previous related topics, all brilliant explainations are waiting for you to grasp them, make you ready for what you need.

Any undergrads and beginning grad students in Physics will find this book is great. This is an excellent example how to write an approachable math methods book. Eventhough it has a thick over than 1,300 pages, but it never turns a reader away becuase of its thickness at all. Once one starts reading it, he'll enjoy and come back looking for another explaination.

One more great point is, this book contains a lot of real physical examples besides the math formulations, make a reader understands the topic deeply and sees a practical use.

Besides the book, I totally don't agree with a previous comment from a chemical physicist who gave this book just one star.

I've been teaching an upper-level course in math methods of physics on and off for thirty-five years or so. This is as good a text as I've found. In fact, I've been using this book since it began life as a much smaller volume by Riley alone. It has always provided a down-to-earth exposition of applicable mathematics. Now it provides more than ever, include two nice chapters on group theory, with more problems than the previous editions.

Despite its broad coverage, it is not an encyclopedia. Individual sections are thorough, well illustrated by examples, and comprehensible. Yes, I might have organized some of the material somewhat differently. But that is largely a matter of taste.

The reviewer who alleges that one must have mastered a lot of math to benefit from this book clearly has not read the first chapter. The book by Boas with which he compares it is a) less comprehensive, b) at a lower level overall, c) and a lot more expensive.

At $63, this volume is a real bargain.

Beautifuly organized compendium of mathematical tools which are daily bread and butter of every theoretical physicst. Excellent for first year graduate students wanting to pursue career in any branch of theoretical physics.
The main advantages which distinguishes this classic from others is clear and conscise pedagogical style and excellent selection of topics which are being discussed fully and without sacrifising mathematical rigour.
However for advanced students this text may sometimes bore with overdetailed explanations and minor details.
Summing up everything, if you wanna learn mathphys and want to start you are in the right place.

I bought this book because I felt that in my undergraduate Chemistry education, I didn't receive enough mathematical training. As I start graduate school, this book has been helpful in seeing the bigger picture of important mathematical concepts and tools. One can really learn a lot if you take the time to read the chapters AND do the problems. It is, in my opinion, a great resource if you need a refresher on some topic, although (as the authors note) not everything can be covered in detail.

My only personal wish is that there was more visual, esp. graphical, content to accompany the concepts. As a visual learner this approach really helps me. The early chapters do well, but figures become sparse in later chapters. Other than that an excellent book.

I am a graduate student in Biochemistry with a bachelors in applied math and I wanted to go back and review a lot of math techniques before I totally forgot them. So I started looking at my old math texts and saw that for what I wanted, many of them were far to dense for a quick review.

So I started searching Amazon and purchased this text along with both of Stroud's texts and I am glad I did. Stroud's texts provide easy to follow examples while Riley's text provides a more rigorous concise presentation of the topics. I find myself reading Riley's text first and if I can not quite understand the topic, I then go to Stroud's for some easier to follow examples. Fortunately, they include many of the same topics.

Thus in my opinion, Riley's is a great text as a reference and for reviewing a topic if you are a little rusty. It is not a good text if you are trying to learn something for the first time or for self study.

I can't say enough good things about this wonderful book! It is an excellent resource as a reference for mathematical concepts that are commonly employed within the sciences and engineering. One caveat that others have pointed out is that the book does not go in esoteric detail and does not weigh heavily on the theoretical aspects of the material, and while this is true, it does not detract from the substance of the book. It still makes an excellent educational and reference resource and I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to add to their scientific and mathematical library.

As a physics student I recommend this book for mathematics for physics class
It covered all subjects i have to know.
This book lack for examples and exercises but well explained.

Five Star.

Very good book. Wide range of contents and written in British style, which may seem strange to some.

The book was in excellent conditions and its content have been very useful. This is the book with a high level but at the same time easier to follow and understand. The examples shown are illustrative enough to consider that the topic was completely covered and understood.

This book is on the whole exactly what you need in a math textbook. It's very clear and the problems and hints are really useful. Occasionally it skims over something, but it's a pretty long book already, so you can't really blame them!