Customer Reviews

Physics Workbook For Dummies

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

 

 

-Overall, some useful practice problems are included, but there are typos in some of the solutions.

-Briefly reviews the relevant topics before presenting each set of problems.

-There should have been more practice problems. I will consider getting the Schaum's 3000 question set.

-DOES NOT have problems for the last three chapters of new material in the "Physics for Dummies" book (18-Magnetism, 19-Voltage, 20-Light)!!!

-Covers Algebra-based Physics ONLY. Look elsewhere for Calculus-based Physics problems.

Like everyone is saying, there a lot of errors in the solutions, and many more subtle errors due to rounding and how significant digits are handled. If you get within 5%, you probably got it right. Some of the sections are a little soft compared to the Physics for Dummies book itself.

These problems aside, the combination of the book and workbook make a good introduction to the subject, and if you do the work earnestly, it will equate to a basic high school class, in my opinion.

Im not a math genius, however I am sure that many of the questions that I got 'wrong' were not incorrect. More than a few of the answers in the back of the book were wrong. Also many other typos; for example in one line it reads 2.45 cm in one inch, in the next line it reads 2.54 cm in one inch. It doesnt seem like a big deal until you are wracking your brains wondering if you did something wrong or if it was simply another typo. The content and delivery is good, but considering this is simply a workbook it probably should have been edited better.

If you are taking high school Physics this is the best book for studying for the math portion of the course!!!

If you attend your lectures, read the accompanying textbook and drill through a few of these problems, you should be fine. This book helped boost my self-esteem and for the problems that were found within, the explanations topped textbooks written by others. However, a few points of note:

1) Not enough problems on certain topics and too many on others which are an easy thing to catch on.

2) For learning the basics, good. For studying before an exam, not so good. The reason behind it is that this book gives you a good, solid foundation of knowledge to take into the higher echelons of physics problem-solving. It does not follow you into that murky field of increasingly difficult problems.

3) It provides several formulas for use and it has a "cheat sheet" you can tear out or use in front of the book. It serves as a quick reference.

4) Finally, most physics books are drab and serve only to bore you to death as you try to learn physics. This book is peppered with humor, which in my case helped. If the writer can grab and hold your attention, then you've got a better chance of learning the material than you otherwise would.

However, if you can afford the tools, I suggest buying "The Complete Physics Tutor". Although it is significantly more expensive, he goes through the video showing you all the steps. Using that in conjunction with this book, you're sure to get the basics and then some!

Good simple excersises that fill in the blanks and help start you slowly and simply into the concepts of physics. My order took a month to arive via regular mail.

It is a shame that this nice workbook has so many errors in the solution sets. Unlike the Schaum 3000 problems this workbook can be easily used to teach yourself basic physics. All that is needed is a basic knowledge of algebra. No calculus needed. It is not expensive to proof a book like this. You find a needy grad student and they will do it for a resonable amount. It should be assumed that even under the best of circumstances that errors will occur. However, this workbook has too many. It is a shame because the author teaches well. It is a shame to mystify a student because the wrong answer is in the solution set. Please redo this workbook.

I received it, but the other book came first, the Wiley Pub, self-learning series on Basic Physics by Kuhn. That did the trick so I don't think I will need this book afterall.

As others were saying..there are LOTS of typos and errors in the answers given to the problems. It's like somebody wrote it in an hour and published it immediately. Also, I expected it to have a lot more problems, and more problems that were more comprehensive. I will say, with due credit, if you work the problems diligently, it does help to give you a basic foundation to build on in an introductory physics course. However, don't rely on your ability to work these problems to enable you to work more complex problems that you're presented with in a college level course. Overall, the workbooks ok, but it really needs some overhauling--definetely needs proofreading and corrections made.

This book was a very helpful source for reviewing Physics. I'd recommend to anyone taking a Physics course.