Customer Reviews

Physics of Stellar Evolution and Cosmology

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There are not many astrophysics textbooks that are fun to read, but this is one of them. The author's goal is to teach a course in stellar evolution using mathematics but without using calculus! That the authors succeed is amazing and along the way the reader learns how to derive equations and setup problems the way a physicist does when he is trying to understand a problem. I used the book as a supplementary text to Zeilik and Carroll and Ostlie. The book works best though with students who have had calculus and know what to do with a differential equation. The book is a primer on how to use differential arguments and basic physics to get to the point where you can apply more advanced math to the problems. It is really best appreciated after you have read some turgid texts that slight the basic physics as being "too hard" to present.