Customer Reviews

Modern Physics (Saunders Golden Sunburst Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Over all I have to say I was rather displeased with this book. During the first few chapters the material is explained rather well, however the authors do not show a lot of derivations for the formulas. I felt the reading material in the later chapters often times did not prepare the reader for the homework problems assigned at the end of the chapters. Too many times there were variables introduced in equations with the assumption that the reader will be able to derive them in order to compute the answers without any explanation from the authors on how to do so. Every now and then I was pleasantly surprised with a thorough and approachable overview of some of the theories. However, most times the authors simply left out a great deal of theory and taught the reader how to "plug and chug" for an EXREMELY simple problem,then gave no examples for problems similar to the complicated ones at the end of the chapter. Though there were some good qualities in the book, I found those qualities to be inconsistent. I would instead recommend Tipler's Modern Physics. His "Introductory to Modern Physics" is a VERY GOOD basic introduction to this subject. He also has a text book for Modern Physics on the same collegiate level as this one that I personally prefer.

this book is ok, but it assumes alot of prior knowledge. i found that i could only understand the material presented in the book after i read an easier text on the subject. this book also had alot of errors in it. i spent 2 hours trying to derive something, only to discover that the book had a plus sign in a formula where it should have had a minus sign. i recomend modern physics by tippler or concepts of modern physics by beiser. beiser's book is easier, and tipplers book is more indepth, but both books assume no prior knowledge of the subject.

I used this text for two semesters. I am an A student and learn most of the material for my classes from my books, so their qualitiy is important to me. I found that overall that book did a solid job of covering special relativity and introducing quantum mechanics/wave particle theory(I have to admit I did not read all of the material on quantum mechanics.) I dislike several things about the text. First, it is a text intended for early stage physics majors, and in being so, I thought that it all too often skipped mathematical derivations, saying"it is left to the reader to confirm," or similar. I feel that such methods severely hinder the flow of the text. They cause readers to either skip ahead or stop and plug through the math. Secondly, the chapter introducing the basic ideas behind statistical mechanics is horribly written. I have since taken a senior level stat mech course and understood the material fairly well. However, I still don't think that Serway's chapter on stat mech is an easy read. To reiterate, the two stat mech chapters are horrible, but the rest of the book is fairly good.

I had this book for Modern Physics and after two semesters with it, I can tell you this book makes the class much harder than necessary. I was beginning to think I was an idiot, but I scraped up enough money to buy the Eisberg book from Amazon and as soon as I got it, it was readily apparent that the Serway book was incomplete, leaving out necessary concepts and leaving it to the student to fill in some big holes.
The Eisberg book and the Serway book are complete opposites; Eisberg giving you more information than you need and the Serway book glossing over what you need to know. With these two choices, I'll take (and did take) too much information any day. If your professor uses this book, do yourself a favor and look for help elsewhere, unless you're one of those people who can read Cliff Notes and wing it, because with the Serway book, that's exactly what you'll be doing.

This is a good introductory book on modern physics for any serious physics student who has already completed the first year GHW text. This book covers such concepts as Brownian Motion, Blackbody Radiation, the Photoelectric Effect, various early and later atomic theories, the Compton Effect, Special Relativity, as well as a few other things. First year calculus and differential equations, as well as a patient instructor, are suggested prerequisites for this text.

My issues with this book include

- Concepts used before being defined e.g. reduced mass
- Essential definitions only made in fine-print footnotes
- Problems in the end of the chapter that simply could not be solved based on the material provided. One of the problems I had trouble with was covered in a third year text in several pages with two embedded exercises for the reader (with hints)!
- Errors in the text e.g. speed of light off by a factor of 100!
- Errors in the answers to problems
- Problems at the end of the chapter that require information only provided in previous problems which you may not have done, or even in *later* problems which you are most unlikely to have done.
- Much of the material is very sketchy and it is hard to tell whether we are supposed to just take something on trust or whether we are supposed to know why it is the case. Particularly the coverage of special relativity is sketchy.
- Inconsistent and unclear use of symbols e.g. k = boltzmann's constant, = coulomb's constant, = "wave number". You are just assumed to know which one is meant.
- Style and approach differs significantly between chapters which makes reading more difficult.

I estimate it took me twice as long as it should have to get through this material because of these and other problems. I often had to look through other texts to find an explanation of things. Invariably things were explained more clearly and accurately elsewhere.

Chapters 1, 4, 7 and 11 are particularly bad.

On the positive side I thought the authors' intent is good. They are trying to give you a feel for how physics is done, and partly succeed.

Overall this book is a disgrace though. Try and find something better.

This Modern Physics textbook has a bit of an identity crisis. One the one hand, you have a complete textbook, covering the basics of modern physics ideas such as: Special Relativity and Introductory Quantum Theory, plus chapters on the various specializations in physics, such as nuclear physics, particle physics, Statistical Mechanics, Condensed Matter, etc.

On the other hand, this textbook is terribly boring! It is a wonder to me how authors can make some of the most exciting subject matter in the scientific world seem so drab and benign. Part of the problem is the lack of depth in some of the chapters, another is just a very dry writing style.

The exercises are okay, though can be a bit on the easy side. As a reference, it is fairly complete and useful for looking up important facts and equations. It can be integrated well within a modern physics course sequence. The examples are clear and decent as well... however, its bundled "Physics visualization software" does not even work in windows, and is completely useless anyway... (To imagine... it only works on old DOS based machines!)

Although not a terrible book by any means, it is pretty unspectacular. I would reccomend Tipler's Modern Physics book, although a bit more difficult, it definitely the better book.

Came in good condition and without any ripped pages( not even a little bit at the top). Would trust to buy from again.

Funny book. The author writes it with a twist of literary perspective, instead of just the cold hard facts. The emphasis on history is educational in itself. I saved allot of money buying online, versus at my student bookstore.

I'm a student of Theoretical Physics, I used this book in my course of Modern Physics, the book is quite good in its explanation, but in the exercises it do not develop the kind of problems that is required for this kind of Physics, is the same problem with the majority of the american authors (in physics) they don't like to work and develop problem with complex mathematics, its is so simple that even a boy of first grade can solve them (not that kind of simple, you just understand to what I refer). It is good, but not excelent.