Customer Reviews

Methods of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 1

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

 

 

This book is intended for mathematicians and not for physicists. All of the mathematics is developed through proofs of theorems. The chapter on approximation of functions is the best in the book. There is also a short introduction to Lebesgue integration which is the best explanation of what it actually means that I have ever seen! (i.e. not having to develop the messy business of measure theory that fills up 10s of pages in most books).

If you want to learn graduate level mathematics (i.e. analysis and PDEs) in gorey detail then this is the book for you. If you want to understand applications, then it is not. I don't like the term "mathematical physics." It depend on which department teaches it. A mathematician will focus on the topics in this book. A physicist would focus on methods and not on proofs.

I would definitely not agree with any bad comments to this book. There are millions of books out there for you to workout problems and help you pass exams. But there is only one who actually teaches the subject and it's Courant. I don't expect literary genius out of a Mathematics book but clear development of the topics. The translation does a good job at it. Believe me if you really want to know the subject and get a feel for it read this book.This is not for the feckless as you will start defacing its stature with your comments. But the price tag is exorbitant and not many can afford to read this wonderful text. I had to borrow from my library as I cannot afford to buy one. 230+$ for two volumes is no joke especially for a student !!

I think that this book is better in its original german than in english langauge. As to its content, it may perhaps not include all items of this thema, but the items include are treated with genius. The lack of problems to solve may be a draw back, but for me that is not much trouble because there are many books with many problems to solve. The interest of this book lies in its being a source book, though historically written down in 1924, it still mantains its beauty and its present mathematical value.

I brought this book ( volume 2 also as well ) because of its " fame ", but when I read it, it has several draw backs. First, may be the original vesion is in German, so even with good translation, it seem does not fit in the usual English style we get used to .Also the topics it choose is too few and also the area covered is too narrow and not well co-ordinated. For example, the whole volumme I is almost dedicated to Calculus of variation only. In volume 2, the whole book is dedicted to differentiation equations. But that is not the greatest drawback. The most bad point is that the book just presents formulae after formulae, equations after equations, without giving examples of how to use it,and also no exercise for me to practice. Compared the the timeless classic " A course of mordern analysis " by Whittaker and Watson, it is definitely at a lower level. This book cannot be described as " classics ".

i noted this book (the asia private edition) when i was a junior student taking engineering math III. now i note vol.1 is for vibration phenomenon, while vol.2 is for wave phenomenon. the material is over a century. birth day is 1924, while the golden age of quantum mechanics is 1925. a modern mathematican wrote the biography of courant said that many physictists surprised that courant could write the tool for quantum mechanics (wave mechanics) before the birth of quantum mechanics. i do not surprised ,because vol.1 is for vibration phenomenon of mechanics, it is also over a century ago knowledge. the real thing is that man use the usual form of thinking and used the unique avaiable tool for the formulation of quantum mechanics. but there exist another state vector, matrix form of quantum mechanics. this advanced classis is for math phD and researcher. one way to study this classic is via mathematics, while another way is via mechanics concept, but when you can study it via both ways, you are great.