Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics

by Douglas C. Giancoli

Book Overview

Key Message: This book aims to explain physics in a readable and interesting manner that is accessible and clear, and to teach readers by anticipating their needs and difficulties without... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0130215171
• ISBN13: 9780130215178
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 1172 Pages
• Weight: 6.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 8.8" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

I’m so happy with my order! I was concerned because the picture said “volume 1” but when I looked up the isbn after I ordered it, I found a lot of results that said “volume 2”, but, as advertised, it’s volume 1! The pages feel very nice— not super glossy like a lot textbooks. I’ve worked through the first few chapters of a lot of intro physics books and I think this one has the best explanations. It starts off each concept in a simple way, so you can understand the how behind the equations. I’ve also found a free pdf of the same book online as a newer edition. I personally prefer hard copies, but if anyone reading this needs it for school and prefers ebooks, I can’t remember where I got it, but I just searched up the book name followed by “free pdf”, clicked a few links, and found it. There’s one link that requires you to sign up for a website, which isn’t the one I mean. It’ll be a direct link to a pdf.

physics book

very well written.easy to understand. problems at the end of the chapters are very good. 5 star +

Absolute Necessity for those in physics

I am a senior physics major and I can assure you, if you are looking for an amazing general reference book, this is the book to get. It is essentially broken into 3 major sections. Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Modern Physics. It has introductory topics on One and Two Dimensional Kinematics, Newtonian Mechanics, Optics, Electricity and Magnetism (including Maxwell's Equations), Thermodynamics, Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Nuclear physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology. I first purchased this book about 4 or 5 years ago for an entry level "University Physics" course. At most Universities this book is used for two semesters. It is a calculus based physics book, so if you have not yet had at least Calculus 1 this book will not be very useful for you if you are going to try to work out the problems. By the time you get to the second half of the book I really recommend at least having Calculus 2. With all of the interesting topics available to read about there are some people that might believe that this book can be read as a popular physics book and just ignore the math. I do not at all recommend that. Although the topics are throughly explained, reading this book and ignoring the math would be an injustice. In every class that I have had in physics since purchasing this book I have consistently gone back to reference it for help. This book is second to none and I believe that there are two books necessary to make it in physics (1) Douglas Giancoli "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" 3rd Edition (2) James Stewart "Calculus" 5th Edition. Just one last thing, make sure that if you are considering purchasing this book note that there are two versions of the 3rd edition. One contains a Modern Physics section and one does not. I highly recommend you get the one with the Modern Physics section. All in all this book is the absolute best and I see myself using all through graduate school.

Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics, Volume II, by Douglas c. Giancoli

Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics: Volume II (3rd Edition) (Physics for Scientists & Engineers) Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics, Volume II, by Douglas c. Giancoli, is a classical amongst the american physics books. The subjects of Volume II are reaching from the theories of electricity and magnetism to light and optics and from their to the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. During the last chapters the author dives into the world of radioactivity , nuclear energy and elementary particles. The final chapter turns from the ultra small to the greatest known dimensions and phenomena, to the science of cosmology and astrophysics. The book is suitable for college and university students and provides a state of art introduction into every subject. The design follows recent american nature science book style, full color throughout, diagrams, many photographs and sketches improve the understanding. A set of physics video clips is available. The book itself is a classroom and brings the physics laboratory onto the students desk. The explanations motivate the student to do practical work on the subject, to take the objects of physics in hand. Usefull also for students of all faculties it provides a straight forward understanding for the entire basic physics. When introducing Gauss's Law and Maxwell's Equation with the related integral calculus , the author draws a chain of mountains into the great number of easy arithemtic physics equations. The change in level of mathematical expertise is sudden and extensive, from standard algebraic equations a lift up to advanced methods and equations of modern calculus in physics. At least two chapters of the book are a motivation for the physics student to spend some time with higher mathematics. The author intends to show to the student that the entire higher physics is even so a type of higher mathematics, so as a provocation and as a challenge. The great number of properly explained fundamental phenomena of physics provide an appropriate base for such higher physics studyings. This is exactly where this book is positioned and where it has its value. The subjects special relativity theory and quantum mechanics are handled on an introductional level, with very less mathematics. The author tries to give a first insight. The book is very suitable for students who have a real interest in physics and who want to reach a profound understanding of its fundaments.

Excellent Freshman Physics Textbook

You are blessed if your professor adopts this book as your textbook. This book presents the physics concepts with rare clarity. It abounds with great number of examples and problems. The overall difficulty level of this book is more challenging than other popular college physics textooks that are available today. A good foundation of senior high school honor Physics and AP physics is certainly helpful. Some selection of topics, such as Coriolis Effect, should capture the imaginations of young minds. This book is currently adpoted as textook at UC-Berkeley (Physics 7 series) and MIT (physics 8.01).

Good introduction to physics.

In all fairness to the book, it's not as bad as I made it out to be below. It is a little upsetting to be given tons of equations without any proofs. But the proofs really are beyond the scope of the book. I've looked at other books of the same level since I wrote the original review, and this one has turned out to be better than all the others. The book would've been better if they mentioned a few extra things like how its treatment of electricity and magnetism should be taken as only working in an absolute frame, and is only an approximation to the full treatment.All in all, this book covers so many topics, that no matter what physics you are doing in the future, you'll always be able to find some information in here that won't be mentioned in your other book.It covers everything you need to know for a first mechanics course, a course in waves and modern physics, a first course in electricity and magnetism, plus a lot more that is never touched in class. Calculus is not needed for the mechanics course, but it is used in the book. If you know calculus, then you'll benefit. If you don't, you can skip the "calculus equations", and the rest of the mechanics part of the book will still all be comprehensible.