16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome Book for all the non Eggheads that need Physics ..., January 15, 2005
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science (Paperback)
I'm just a regular guy, rather than a physics genius. This book was just another in my huge stack of preparatory books that I'm using to get ready for my ph.d. qualifier.
Yes, this book is a bit too elementary for use on most qualifiers, but Browne has done what nobody else has done, he has taken all of the most important areas of mechanics, e&m, optics, thermo, quantum and relativity and present the material in an easy-to-understand way. The amazing thing though, is that he has managed to make a simple book but still explain the important areas of advanced physics. You won't find a derivation of -- for instance -- the Maxwell Eelectromagnetic wave equation and Poynting Vector, but the equations are in there, and he shows you how to use them.
I can go through my more advanced books and even my simpler guidebooks, and one thing strikes me immediately ... that Browne is in the same class as Griffiths, Speigel and Landau. He has written a book about physics, and he understands physics. The clarity of thought in this book can only come from a seasoned professional with years of experience "behind the pencil." This is not the type of book that is written by a brash young physicist that needs to show how smart he is, but by a grandpa that really does want to make things easier. Amazingly, he even gives a skeletal outline as to how Schrödinger may have come up with his equation, which is nice ... most other books just say it cannot be derived and leave it at that.
Ironically, I had seen this book back in my undergraduate days, and thought little of it. But now that I have enough knowledge to want the simplicity of physics, rather than just a head full of equations, I see the true value of Browne, he UNDERSTANDS, and helps me understand.
Yes, there are a few minor mistakes in the book, but not as many as other reviewers have said. Most of the time, his "error" is either a very obvious typo or a wrinkle to a problem that looks like an error, but is actually correct.
His problems are all interesting, and almost exclusively applied problems. (It wouldn't hurt to have had a few more mathematical type problems, but that's okay.) He even gives amusing personal stories in the problems to keep things interesting.
So now the book is valuable to me because I already have a head full of equations, and I'm already fogged in and can no longer see the forest, just trees. But Browne gives me the aerial view, and I can see how everything fits together again.
I use this book, I live with this book and I'll probably use it for years. I recommend this book. At about $12 you can't go wrong, it's worth many times more.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable teaching tool, March 27, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science (Paperback)
I taught calculus-based physics to undergraduates, and I recommended this book to my students as a study aid. The solved problems are an excellent tool for learning. Very useful book.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Massive Errors, October 22, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Physics for Engineering and Science (Paperback)
This book contains interesting problems and the author seems to know his Physics. However, the book appears to not have been proof read, or perhaps the author is expecting students to find the errors and perhaps inform him of them. The problem with this is that most students are using a book of this sort to help them understand physics. But when the answers cannot be relied upon to be correct, the student must know the subject as well as the instructor to easily catch them. Hours of confusion can result for the beginner. Some of the errors are unforgiveable. On page 42, equations 4-6, the velocity y-component and x-components are reversed. Worse and more subtle poblems occur. The author states on page 45 that a projectle launch at a 45 degree angle results in the missle range being twice the maximum height of the projectle.(true) Then, in problem 4.5 at the chapters end, he attempts to prove the angle is 63.4 degrees.(an error)In general the errors are too numerious to easily list in this kind of forum. This book should have been cleaned up before it was released to the public. I wish you well!
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