Customer Reviews

The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 5th Edition

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One day when the professor who was teaching the Wave Phenomena and Modern Physics quarter of my General Physics sequence was away serving on a thesis review panel or some such business, the professor who had taught the Electricity and Magnetism quarter took over the class. Before giving lecture he commented, "I really hate your text. There's no physics in it. It's a math text."

In an important way he was correct. Pain's text covers a wide variety of physical phenomena which are similar to each other in coceptual ways and are related in the mathematical methods used to treat them. He does not make any particular attempt to explore the relations among the topic when they exist nor does he especially attempt to deepen the reader's physical intuition. In this sense this text is lacking as a teaching tool.

However I have the sense that this text was meant for a different use. Pain provides the reader with a solid background in the mathematical methods used to tackle situations from vibrating membranes to basic physical optics to introductory wave mechanics. Admittedly it helps to come to this text with the proper mathematical background: some knowledge of Fourier analysis, some knowledge of partial differetntial equations, etc. For a student with the proper prerequisites this text can serve as a valuable refernce, which is the capacity in which my professor used this book.

Ultimately the value of this book depends on the nature of the course in which it is used (I would not recommend it as a first self-study course in this topic). A complete and rigorous lecture series or an aditional, more intuitive text are a fine complement to Pain's work. It is, in addition, a text I will always keep as a reference for my further work.

While getting its point across, this book was filled with errors and proved to be incredibly confusing at times. Pain often makes theoretical jumps in logic that are difficult to trace for an undergraduate student, as he provides little in the way of an explanation. This text is useable, but approach with caution.

Great book,very comprehensive. It should be used only after knowing calculus with more than one variable. Fundamental book for students that learn physics.