Customer Reviews

Mathematical Physics: Applied Mathematics for Scientists and Engineers

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4 star:		(1)
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I was a student in Professor Kusse's AEP 321/322 course in the Fall of 1990/Spring 1991. He is a very clear instructor of the concepts presented, and I remember his lectures were at a different level than the texts selected for the class -- the lectures were geared to the level of sophomores/juniors having completed a three-semester sequence in engineering mathematics at the level of Thomas/Finney, whereas the texts (Arfkin, Butkov) seemed geared more towards a graduate-level audience. The lectures are what carried the course for me.

I stumbled upon this book recently, picked up a copy, and compared it to my notes from the course -- it is the same clear style and target audience as his lectures were, but far more polished.

One would serve one's students exceptionally well with this text for a similar course.

This book is fantastic. It is a good introduction to many fundamental mathematical techniques used in physical sciences and engineering. The material is a must-know for all undergraduates in physical sciences and engineering. It's clear diagrams, step-by-step proofs, coupled with lecture-style explanations, make it easy for independent reading and understanding.

For those of you who love maths and physics, this book will be a pleasure to read. It teach you the maths needed for much of physics. The title might be a trifle misleading though. A substantial portion of the maths is unlikely to be used by the typical engineer or chemist. Like the use of contravariant and covariant vectors. Mostly used just in physics. Outside physics, the only context that springs to mind is if you are an engineer involved with coding GPS applications that require Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

But, ok, much of the maths could be apropos to fields outside physics. The use of contour integrals and residues comes to mind. A beautiful and powerful idea that should be learnt by anyone who has to deal with complex integrals.

A fine book in terms of coverage but a few words of caution. If you are a person who might get confused by strange notation, then this book is definitely not for you. However, the book covers a wide variety of topics at a superficial level which is suitable for students learning mathematical physics for the first time. The discussion on the Green functions is very illuminating and the authors also spend a lot of time in Fourier/Laplace transforms. The exercises at the end of each chapter are also good for practice (another heads-up here, there are some places where the questions are either vague or do not make sense but the authors compensate with the errata list. Hope the book is updated by the next edition)