Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre textbook at best, August 12, 1999
By A Customer
Even though this textbook is now in its 5th edition, most users of the book will find it sorely lacking in many respects. First, the writing style is dry and sleep inducing. The sign of superior textbooks is that they anticpate the reader's questions and answers them right on the spot with a diagram or more explanations. Books that have this clairvoyant insight are the ones that are true gems. This book does not do that all. The author makes no attempt to infuse personality or interest into the material. It would have been more interesting if the author had inserted personal comments such as how to remember a formula(mnemonics), words of encouragement, cartoons, comics, MORE analogies, anything to diversify the presenation and keep me interested. Instead, he piles fact upon fact upon fact. Gee how captivating? Instead of lecturing to the reader, how about engaging the reader in dialogue? Reading you book is a relationship that's going to last a whole school year..why not make it fun? Second, I found the derivations of formulas to be very difficult to follow at times. I think it's because of the eye-straining font and the fact that the text is all in black print. Equations in the text shouldn't be boldened even blacker but set off in a different color and derived in one space instead of having words placed between them. Third, I got the impression that the author was writing the book more for physics professors than for novice students. In the front cover, the author brags about how over 150 college professors have thoroughly reviewed the book over the span of the five editions. Well, that's nice but it would have been way more beneficial if 150 *beginning* students had reviewed it instead of teachers. What's the point of giving a book for review to someone who has had already mastered the subject? Those who have mastery over a subject cannot remember the difficulties and frustrations when they were first learning the material. In fact, in his introduction, the author write a long intro on how teachers should use the book; excuse me, but your book is not written for teachers, but for students. The book is for FIRST time students, not teachers. Well since teachers determine which textbooks to adopt, the author had no choice but to cater to their demands. WRONG!! Fourth, the author leaves the reader hanging by not including the answers to the conceptual questions. I think even more important than solving numerical problems is understanding the conceptual questions. well it would have been nice to include the damn answers. Fifth, the text has this elitist attitude that seems to engulf it. For example, he suggests that the hardest problems, those he rated level III, should be "reserved for only the best students." Such a distinction does not serve to encourage hard work. I thought to myself, "Man I must be a bad student because I can't answer most of the level III problems. I've read the chapter several times, worked the beginning level I and II problems but I just can't answer these level III ones..ok the author wins..you've stumped me..there does that make you happy now?" His attitude should be more encouraging. Offer us hints or ideas instead of forcing us to reinvent the wheel. I know you don't want to spoon feed physics, but leaving me hanging and frustrated like a battered puppy won't do the trick. Sixth, the author offers *no* guidance as to which of the end of chapter problems should be mastered. Instead, he just throws a whole bunch of problems--in fact over 100 questions per chapter. Now these aren't easy questions. Most questions take about 2 to 3 minutes to answer. I want to know of these hundred of problems which I should concentrate my time to do my best on tests. Most students are using the book to prepare for AP exams and mcats. The author gloats that there are 3100 questions. Realistically, should I struggle through 3100 questions to get the essence of physics? Give me a break. Realize who your audience is for the book. Teachers will find it useful; your audience, the students, will not. In conclusion, I found this book to be boring, unhelpful, and tedious. The book basically hits you unmercifully over with facts until you doze off into sleep or throw the book against the wall in frustration. Physics teachers will enjoy reading this book; the rest of us will find it more useful to stay far, far away. And you know what, that's a shame because physics is interesting but this book does no justice to such a wonderful subject.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very difficult book to understand and follow., August 30, 2001
By A Customer
I used this book in my AP Physics B course in grade 12. The book, if you read JUST the text and examples, is not difficult at all. The examples are very straightforward, and the text is coherent. There are a few errors I have found, but in mathematics/physics books, this is a frequent thing. But the weakness in this book is the Problems--WAY WAY WAY too hard for an intro Physics class. Now I have a strong algebra and calculus/trig basis, and even for me this book is very diffucult. Too much time is spent rambling on about useless topics, and more time should be devoted to crafting a stronger exposition--explain the solutions to more of the problems. The only thing that saved us is the fact that we had the INSTRUCTOR'S SOLUTIONS MANUAL, by Irvin A Miller to guide us through these gruesome questions. Mr Giancoli, if you are reading this--you wrote a very good textbook. But in order to do problems, one must SEE visually how it is done out and be able to clearly follow the exposition. We are grateful to Mr Miller, the author of the solutions manual, for enabling us to get through the book. With the answer book to guide us, we all got 4's and a few 5's on the AP exam. The kids the year before who used just the Giancoli text got all 3's or less (most got 2's). A word of advise--get the answer book if you are studying this text. Without it the book is useless in understanding how to do the problems. ...
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
WARNING, March 29, 2001
By A Customer
This book is maddening. Hundreds of physics problems, and no manual to show you how their solutions are derived. You can't learn physics unless you go over the solutions to problems -- so you can't learn physics with this book alone. You need 1.)a professor with the solutions manual 2.) the solutions manual (which a lowly student is not allowed to have) -- or 3.) a different book (my recommendation). I'm preparing on my own for the MCAT, and this book is driving me crazy. I'm able to get my hands on College Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Biology texts, all with detailed answers to their problems. Trying to answer a problem, failing, reviewing the answer, coming back to it later and trying again -- that's how you learn. Reading five pages of text, one or two worked-out examples, and then tackling 30 problems of varying degrees of difficulty with no assistance from the text (or the absolutely useless student manual, what a waste of money) -- is no way to learn physics. If the authors published a student solutions manual with worked-out problems, this would be a good text. I wish the authors could read some of the comments on this site and realize WORKED-OUT PROBLEMS FOR STUDENTS OF PHYSICS ARE ESSENTIAL TO LEARNING PHYSICS. Perhaps in a classroom setting, with a good teacher, this is a helpful text. Trying to use it on your own as a resource for MCAT preparation, or any other solitary learning, however, is a complete waste of time. DON'T BUY IT.
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