Customer Reviews

Physics: Principles with Applications

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I know physics is hard for all of us, but this book is very clear in explaining physics. It does not involve in calculus, so usually it is better for most students who never took physics. So if you did not take physics class before, I highly recommend this book because it does not use pompous or intricate words that most science textbook writers do. Not only is it an easy reading, but also it has awesome questions and problems that make you think and that check whether you know really physics.

Most my friends who were in engineering or math majors had easy physics teachers in high school. Some of them did not even take physics at all. Surprisingly, they dived into calculus based physics book and they found the subject to be incredibly hard. I understand their pain because I think this book can be a bridge that can connect high school physics(so easy ones) and calculus based physics.

I also read Serway's College Physics, and in my opinion, I think Giancoli wrote better job in explaining physics with more clear diagrams. The sentences that he uses grabs my attention. Serway confused me and I was stuck a lot from his book. Problems in examples are so much better in Giancoli as well and diagrams were better as well.

So before you read calculus based physics, read this one thoroughly and you will be able to breathe in higher physics class.

Overall, this is a decent textbook. The authors cover everything that's needed to know for any general Physics course.
However, a major flaw and advantage is the amount of information compressed within 1000 pages. Providing dozens of explanations and examples in each chapter does help students to better relate to the meaning behind the formulas. But by doing this constantly, the book must be slowly read with a strong attention span.
The problem with this book is focus. There is too much design, text, and colors going on at any given page.
I recommend reading "Cracking the AP Physics" or "Basic Physics" before diving into this book. Mainly because those two books offer simple and clear design, text and color; reducing the stress that comes from learning Physics.

So, what is Torque?

"The angular acceleration, then, is proportional to the product of the force times the lever arm. This product is called the moment of the force about the axis, or more commonly, it is called the torque, and is represented by (Greek tau)..."
- Torque (page 204 - Physics 6th - Giancoli ):

"Intuitively, torque describes the effectiveness of a force in producing rotational acceleration."
- Torque (page 97 - Cracking the AP Physics B & C Exams 06-07 edition):

Having taught from the first volume of Giancoli at the two-year college level, I suggest that the emphasis is on the algebra and not on understanding the Physics. Understanding comes through solving the problems; the problems are not being solved as a result of understanding. The notation is unnecessarily complex and the language is overly formal. This screens the physics involved. A course with Giancoli becomes an exercise in algebra,(I call this equation slinging), and not a course in Physics.

If you want a real understanding of the physics, get Hewitt's Conceptual Physics. It is far more intellectually challenging than G., and gives the reader a real understanding of the laws and principles of physics. If you then want a mathematical treatment, that old standby Halliday and Resnick (or Resnick and Halliday depending upon the edition)is still hard to beat. A used Hewitt and H & R are more than adequate and far less expensive than Giancoli.

I have used this book extensively for the past two years in my trig-based physics classes. The problems frequently force the student to make assumptions that simply aren't reasonable and the book glosses over content that really should be covered in greater detail. I know this is typical of many physics texts, however, when your book dedicates all of one paragraph to adiabatic changes of state you might want to reconsider it as your text.

Physics isn't the easiest subject to learn but this Giancoli text makes it look even more complicated than it is. The book is unnecessarily wordy. Very heavy on algebra but a bit light on the actual principles of physics, and many of the explanations and sample problems given in the chapters are nothing at all like the questions at the end of each chapter. Hard to believe this book is the choice of most physics professors. I found it frustrating. Would have been better if Giancoli would just get to the point instead of all those long paragraphs with a lot of useless information. Not a good book for beginning physics students. If you really want to learn physics get a different book to use as a supplement.

I usually find that the people who dislike this textbook are those who aren't fluent in math / science. I'm not very surprised with this, because this is certainly a tough textbook, primarily intended for serious students. While overall the book is pretty clear and well-written, this textbook is challenging in that it doesn't provide many explanations to challenging problems, has a very high emphasis on problem-solving, and goes very in-depth on very challenging topics. So, if you really don't have much of an interest in physics, you're probably not going to like this book very much.

For serious students, however, this book is an excellent overview of introductory algebra-based physics, and will definitely prepare students for more advanced calculus-based physics courses. First, the text definitely is well-written and clear to read, and does an excellent job explaining the concepts. It mentions common student errors on topics such as Newton's Second Law, or Electromagnetic Induction, and overall is very concise compared to other textbooks I've seen. It also frequently provides diagrams / images to further understanding, and includes nice chapter summaries at the end. Unfortunately, understanding the concepts isn't enough in physics. To truly understand physics, one must be able to APPLY the concepts into real-world situations. This is the tough part about physics, and that's what this textbook truly emphasizes. Giancoli doesn't make physics just a bunch of plug and chug computational math. Giancoli makes the student THINK AND UNDERSTAND physics, through very very insightful and tricky examples, problem-solving strategy boxes, and most importantly, a vast amount of challenging problems that require thought and struggle. In addition, the book frequently provides APPLICATIONS of physics to real-world situations. The book frequently links physics to subjects such as biology (calculate the velocity of a protein molecule! / understand how torque / muscles work together), chemistry (entropy), and even geology (how wind in cave functions, how pendulums determine thickness of ground). So, this textbook also is EXTREMELY thorough and covers quite a lot of material for an introductory textbook.

To conclude, let me emphasize again that physics is not just about understanding some concepts and then memorizing some formulas. Physics is about thinking, applying, and problem-solving, and those are the skills Giancoli highly highly emphasizes, which is what makes this textbook a bit challenging. For serious students, this book will provide them an excellent overview of introductory physics. For students uninterested in physics, this book not only will be challenging, but also not very helpful.

I have used Giancoli for several years for my AP-B Physics Class which I typically cover in just one year as opposed to the recommended two years. I have found that the Giancoli 6th edition is a great resource for the students to use when I am hitting them with all of Physics for the first time. Giancoli covers the fundamentals extremely well and then builds upon them with examples to create critical thinking.

The only negative I have with the book is the fact that many of the problems are not SI based. In the AP exam they deal only with Kilograms, Meters and Seconds and I really would rather have them focus on problem solving rather than have to convert units first.

This book has some great diagrams and a lot of interesting problems, but learning from this book is very difficult.

The text is lacking: A lot of things are missing that would really help students understand some of the more difficult concepts. I like the Walker text much better. Walker also has a lot of great diagrams, but the text is much easier to follow. Walker seems to intuitively know what you are unsure of and answers the questions in the text before you have to ask them.

If you have never taken a physics class, this is the book you should get. I'm taking a physics class right now and the book the official book in the department is college physics 8th, however I have never touch it after the first chapter. I believe this book does a better job at explaining.

It's clear from the organization, layout, and writing quality that a lot of time and effort was spent in making this book. The diagrams and use of color is outstanding.

The text is neither overly concise nor overly verbose, making every topic and concept very easy to follow and easy to understand. I also love all the "conceptual examples" which elucidate many common pitfalls and explain (with outstanding clarity and detail) why intuition may be misleading in specific cases.

There are a massive amount of problems at the end of each chapter, and each is given a difficulty rating between I and III. Master all the III problems and you're pretty much guaranteed to ace any exam that comes your way.