Raymond A. SerwayCritiques

Sometimes I feel a bit of a phony, writing a review of a textbook like this. For a book this size it's almost inconceivable that I will have read it all and completed all the exercises etc. In fact, I bought it really just to have a reference book on physics, which was reasonably up-to-date (2003.....so I guess it can be argued that it]s not really up-to-date). But at least it's much better that the physics books I had before, dated to around 1963. Or the other book I have titled "The new physics" by Paul Davies. One interesting thing that I notice is that whilst the underlying material of force, electricity, magnetism, light etc., continue more or less unchanged, subtle changes still creep into the material. I guess the change that I appreciate most is with the greater use of coloured diagrams and photos and, in the case of this book, the clarity of explanations.
Confession, I haven't read all the book. I've only dipped into it in a few places ....like general relativity. Well, what can you expect with just two pages devoted to general relativity? But, I must confess to being surprised. I think the authors have done an incredible job in the two pages of distilling much of the essence of general relativity. And one thing that I've never seen before in a book of this nature is the section 1.9....setting out a general problem solving strategy for physics. Really very useful...and I don't think I was ever given such a strategy when I did physics at high school and university.
The structure of the book is interesting;
1. Mechanics
2. Thermodynamics
3. Vibrations and waves.
4. Electricity and magnetism
5. Light and optics
6. Modern physics...relativity, quantum physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, elementary particles.

I thought that they might have started with the modern physics but it all hangs together in a reasonably logical sequence. (Though one might argue that studying light and electricity before studying the photon and the electron is a bit back-to front).
My version is second-hand and the section on mechanics is thoroughly worked over in the previous owner's own hand. I always find it extraordinary that notations like this are always most intense at the start of the book and inevitably drop off later in the book. I guess our good intentions have their limits!.
I had a look at the section on nuclear physics and found it a bit limited. One gets much better and more thorough expositions in Chemistry books...but I suppose one might expect this.
Overall, quite impressed and I'll probably be dipping into it fro time to time...liked the detailed worked sample questions. Four stars from me.

This was a decent book, but not great. My main issues with it were:

1.) I prefer more concise, math-first presentations for physics. This book had too many pictures; it had many small diagrams and "active figures" surrounded by description, but few large diagrams with e.g. concise descriptions, math in the text, etc.) Wasted space, and distracting!

2.) I wished that e.g. Maxwell's equations had both the integral AND vector/differential forms were given; this book doesn't go over the differential form, which is pretty darn standard.

I carried this book around a lot, so let me re-stress how important it is to be concise. That said, I did like many example problems in the text, with discussions of how to solve, etc (I actually wished there were a few harder ones.)

This is easily one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I wish that every person on the face of the earth could take a modern physics class, and this book is the perfect companion. It gives a wonderful historical account of modern physics, giving you each of the bits of experimental evidence as they became available to the scientists of the day and allowing you to see exactly how we have come to understand the universe the way we do. Perhaps the best part about this method is that you get to spend a little bit of time studying a lot of different topics. You get to see all the important introductory parts of relativity, quantum mechanics,nuclear physics, and the rest without getting bogged down in all the details that make dedicated courses in those topics so difficult and time consuming. Truly, I wish everyone could study this. Alas, it will prove quite difficult if you haven't had introductory physics in mechanics, electromagnetism, and optics.

Absolutely the best physics textbook I encountered in my whole university career. The explanations were clear, with a good number of examples to learn from.½