The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (Series of Books in Astronomy) [Hardcover]

Frank H. Shu (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0935702059 | ISBN-13: 978-0935702057 | Publication Date: January 1982

"This is a truly astonishing book, invaluable for anyone with an interest in astronomy." Physics Bulletin "Just the thing for a first year university science course." Nature "This is a beautiful book in both concept and execution." Sky & Telescope

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A truly astonishing book, invaluable for anyone with an interest in astronomy and surely the bargain of the year." -- Physics Bulletin

"Just the thing for a first year university science course." -- Nature

"This is a beautiful book in both concept and execution." -- Sky & Telescope

About the Author

Frank Shu is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1968. Shu has written a number of expository articles for the lay public, and is the author of The Physics of Astrophysics, Volumes I and II.  He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Academia Sinica.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: University Science Books (January 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935702059
• ISBN-13: 978-0935702057
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shu's Lectures on Astrophysics, July 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (Series of Books in Astronomy) (Hardcover)

Yes, I nicknamed that book like the well-known The Feynman Lectures on Physics. With regard to Feynman, I have no doubt that if Richard Feynman himself is to write a book and give lectures on Astrophysics, he will end up wrote a book similar to this book.

I am a graduate physics student working in experimental high energy physics, but I have always found myself curious about astrophysics. Back in my home country, the literature on astronomy is so rare that I only can manage to borrow and read an old edition of Abell's Exploration of the Universe. It was a good book, but I need more physics to cater my curiosity in astrophysics.

I've heard about this book quite some time, but not until I arrived in USA that I can buy this book through Amazon and start to read it. With my background in graduate level physics, this book is quite an easy read for me.

The book was written with multiple audience in mind: humanities and liberal arts majors who are interested in astrophysics but don't want to use too much mathematics; freshman students with great curiosity but not much mathematical skills; biology, life-science, and pre-med students with interest in astrobiology and the origin of life; general science and engineering students with strong math and physics background but have no intention to have a career in science; and ultimately to those thoughtful, astronomers-astrophysicist-physicist-wanna-be students. Perhaps those are exactly the same kind of audience Shu ever has in Berkeley: Berkeley is famous for diversity.

The book is self-contained, in the sense that (almost) all the necessary scientific concepts and backgrounds are explained: mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, microbiology, genetics, even there are some discussions in supersymmetry and grand unification. There are some parts and problems that requires calculus and advanced undergraduate physics but the reader doesn't have to read those part to understand the results. I was lucky to have all the necessary physics to fully understand the book, but this should not stop laymen and common people to read this book.

The book is divided into four parts.

Part I (Chapter 1-4). Basic Principles.

This part explains the origin and history of astronomy and astrophysics, and the basic physical principles behind astrophysics: mechanics, relativity, optics, telescopes, quantum mechanics, atomic theory, and thermodynamics.

Part II (Chapter 5 - 10). Stars.

This part discuss stars as a basic constituents of our universe. Starting with the Sun as an example, the book goes with the energy generations and physical mechanism behind stars, birth, life, and death of stars, star classifications, stellar clusters, and binary stars.

Part III (Chapter 11 - 16). Galaxies and Cosmology.

This part starts with discussing materials between stars in our Galaxy, then our own Galaxy the Milky Way, further galaxies outside Milky Way, an introduction to Einstein's concepts of gravitation, cosmology, and ends with the Big Bang theory as the current Standard Model of Cosmology.

Part IV (Chapter 17 - 20). The Solar System and Life.

This part discuss the Solar System and the Planets, origins of the Solar System, and finally: the origin of life on Earth, and later the Life and Intelligence in our Universe. In my opinion, not much astronomy/astrophysics book discuss this subject, and in this sense this book make itself clearly stands out among the other.

Although it's 20 years now after the original publication, about 90% of the material are still relevant and interesting.
I personally suggest that Shu take a thorough revision and include some latest results on astrophysics in his book:
the dark energy and cosmic expansion, cosmic microwave background anisotropy, quark stars, extrasolar planets, large extra-dimensional particle theory, genetic engineering etc.
This would certainly bring the book back up-to-date for the 21st century.

I, without doubt, heartily recommend this book for all of you who are interested in astronomy and astrophysics, whatever background you have. A special recommendation is for physics student who wants to do astronomy in grad school but never take any astronomy/astrophysics courses. By buying, reading, and studying this book alone, combined with a mastery of upper-level undergraduate physics (analytical mechanics, thermodynamics & stat phys, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and math methods), I believe you will be ready for your grad-level astrophysics courses and even may have some advantages due to your physics background.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to astronomy for physics majors, June 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (Series of Books in Astronomy) (Hardcover)

This is the book I used in my first year of grad school to make the transition from a physics major to an astronomy grad student. The problems range from very simple (algebraic) to those using calculus, but all are elegant and chosen to illustrate important ideas. This book will give you a back-of-the-envelope acquaintance with a very broad sweep of research areas in astronomy. This book also convinced me that Frank Shu is not only a great researcher, but a great teacher as well.

I bought a new copy recently -- my old one wore out. I use it to introduce physics majors and colleagues interested in interdisciplinary work to astronomy. I have also used it to teach extra-bright (TAG accelerated college entrance program) 11-to-14-year-olds some fundamentals of astronomy and physics, and they loved it, too. Good for bright, interested people of any age who are not afraid to try.

Subject matter is still up-to-date, as it is theoretical (although based solidly on observations), and does not rely, as many introductory texts do, on the "latest results from The Current Gigantic Telescope Project" for material.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic astronomy and astrophysics textbook, December 23, 2004

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (Series of Books in Astronomy) (Hardcover)

This was a superb textbook when it appeared over twenty years ago. It begins with some introductory material about microscopic and macroscopic laws of physics. After that, we learn about stars and their evolution. And binary stars. Next are galaxies and galactic clusters. And cosmology and the hot big bang. Then our planetary system. And we finish with life and intelligence in the universe.

I read this book when it first came out and truly enjoyed it. But I do want to warn folks that it is getting a little out-of-date and definitely needs a new edition. In the past twenty years, we have made plenty of new discoveries. Topics such as dark energy, the accelerating expansion of the universe, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, gamma-ray bursters and soft gamma repeaters, supernova 1987A, ultraluminous infrared galaxies, extrasolar planets and planetary migration, the Big Splat theory of the origin of the Moon, and inflationary models of the big bang are too new to be in this book. Plenty of work on formation of galaxies is too new as well. Descriptions of and recent results from deep space probes and telescopes are not included. That leaves us with much less to discuss about Uranus or Neptune, not to mention recent in situ observations of Mars or questions about water under the icy surface of Europa. And even topics such as artificial intelligence are discussed without the benefit of the past twenty years of perspective.

I still recommend the book. But I wouldn't be able to teach a class on astronomy or astrophysics from this text without supplementing it with a substantial amount of extra material.