Open Source Physics: A User's Guide with Examples (3rd Edition) [Paperback]

Wolfgang Christian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2006 | ISBN-10: 080537759X | ISBN-13: 978-0805377590 | Edition: 3

KEY BENEFIT: The Open Source Physics project provides a comprehensive collection of Java applications, smaller ready-to-run simulations, and computer-based interactive curricular material. This book provides all the background required to make best use of this material and is designed for scientists and students wishing to learn object-oriented programming using Java in order to write their own simulations and develop their own curricular material. The book provides a convenient overview of the Open Source Physics library and gives many examples of how the material can be used in a wide range of teaching and learning scenarios. Both source code and compiled ready-to-run examples are conveniently included on the accompanying CD-ROM.  The book also explains how to use the Open Source Physics library to develop and distribute new curricular material. Introduction to Open Source Physics, A Tour of Open Source Physics, Frames Package, Drawing, Controls and Threads, Plotting, Animation, Images, and Buffering, Two-Dimensional Scalar and Vector Fields, Differential Equations and Dynamics, Numerics, XML Documents, Visualization in Three Dimensions, Video, Utilities, Launching Physics Curricular Material, Tracker Video Analysis, Easy Java Simulations Modeling, The BQ Database  For all readers interested in learning object-oriented programming using Java in order to write their own simulations and develop their own curricular material.  

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 3 edition (January 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080537759X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805377590
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Repository, Terrible Book, September 6, 2007

By 

Kain Junot (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Open Source Physics: A User's Guide with Examples (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

While I understand it is nigh impossible for a physics text to be completely without typos, and I have never been a huge fan of the Addison-Wesley editorial department, but they have outdone themselves with the utter lack of proof-reading for a supposedly mature third edition text.
Moving on, this book is essentially about implementing computational methods in the Java environment. This is fine and there are lots of nice routines available in the open source physics repository. (I do question the use of java as a high performance platform, however). Unfortunately, this book presents very few examples for implementing the aforementioned routines and the most of the few examples have critical typos (You cannot even complete the steps for his hello world! example as there are typos in the directory structure presented!).
Possibly the only saving grace of the book is the brief mention of Easy Java Simulations (EJS) - A visual platform for generating applets making actual use of the open source physics repositiores. However, the author cannot spare the breath to walk you through an EJS project with any depth, which would give this book an actual reason for taking up space on your book shelf.

Bottom Line- Stay away unless you absolutely need a Java implementation of your physics models, and even then Easy Java Simulations is a more tractable place to begin.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent companion for your computational physics, August 27, 2011

By 

Alfonso Reyes (The Woodlands/Houston, TX - United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Open Source Physics: A User's Guide with Examples (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

Some years ago I was looking for a scientific Java library that I could use for my petroleum engineering activities. There are dozens of these libraries that can be found in the web. The Open Source Physics library was exactly what I was looking for: it is simple to use, functions are intuitive, classes are very powerful, and the best of all is that the visualization part has been done beautifully perfect; you can start producing your scientific or engineering applications in few minutes without focusing too much on the code. That's where the OSP library shines.

Both books, the "Computer Simulation Methods" and the "User Guide" are an excellent point of start if you are either starting scientific computing by your own or using it as a part of a course. I haven't seen this quality of books before. It amazes me how well the authors explain the physics behind the phenomena. Once you understand it, then they explain the coding without spending too much time in programming. Well, it was written by physicists not programmers. But it you see the code, because is open source, it has been programmed which such taste, structure and organization that is even an outstanding guide on how to write scientific libraries. You can learn good Java habits from here.

This is the second time that I am buying these books; my first set I gave it as a gift to one of my best friends in Peru who was working on an oil wells drilling monitoring application in Java.

The extra is that a physicist in Spain used the OSP libraries as the core for a simulation application called Easy Java Simulations or EJS. Well, I can tell you, that mix is very, very powerful. The EJS environment allows you write your algorithm, function, module, or application in a breeze focusing on the math or the physics instead of the coding for the input or the output. As a matter of fact it took me few minutes to create the graphical interface, the plots and the correlation functions for a PVT application that will find the best oil correlation for a given PVT point.