Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
Sep 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999phyed..34..327t&link_type=abstract
Physics Education, Volume 34, Issue 5, pp. 327 (1999).
Physics
Physics Education
Scientific paper
The number of broadly based physics texts written at a level corresponding to second year and above of UK physics degrees is limited. This is such a book thoroughly updated in a third edition, the first edition having been published 20 years ago. The book is unusual in that the reader is referred to the Freeman website www.whfreeman.com/physics for some additional sections. It will be interesting to see whether this proves to be an attractive feature.
The coverage reflects the US emphasis on topics and contains both theoretical and experimental details. It should not be regarded as an introductory text although it is clearly written. Thus the first two chapters take the reader straight into relativity, concentrating mainly on special relativity but going on to general relativity. From here the reader is led to ideas of quantization of charge, light and energy, followed by an exploration of the nuclear atom, wavelike properties of particles and Schrödinger's equation. Solution of this equation for the hydrogen atom introduces a section on spectroscopy. The next chapter on statistical physics includes Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics and brings to a close Part 1, which concentrates on the theoretical groundwork. Consistent with its title, the book does not cover traditional aspects of thermodynamics and electromagnetic theory.
Part 2 is entitled `Applications' and begins with a chapter on molecular structure and spectra. Lasers and masers are included here but geometrical, physical and nonlinear optics get limited or no coverage. Solid state physics follows but, despite the title of the book, there is little on modern devices, although the section on superconductivity mentions high temperature materials. The chapters on nuclear physics, fission, fusion reactors and medical applications and a chapter on particle physics are comprehensive. Finally a chapter on astrophysics and cosmology is referred to, but the reader must find this at the website. As this is an attractive chapter it is a pity that it is not printed within the book. Although viewing the chapter on the Web gives the benefit of full colour, it is not easy to read the textual information off the screen.
Within the printed material, there are good diagrams with the addition of a single colour, burgundy, a colour that is wasted on those of us who are red-green colour-blind! Each chapter is provided with an impressive number of graded problems (it is not easy to provide such a comprehensive range of problems at this level) and numerical answers are given in the back for every third problem. There is a student solution manual available for these problems and a complete instructor's solution manual has also been produced. It is therefore a useful book for both students and lecturers.
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