Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] rebuilding my (lost) library

I asked my colleague, Ian Durham, for his input on this topic. He gave
me permission to forward his response. Here it is:

Textbooks I couldn't do without (my personal list + comments):



Classical Mechanics:

- Classical Mechanics by Herbert Goldstein. Whether or not you
teach from it, it's certainly something that belongs on your shelf.
Suitable for graduate school and maybe advanced undergraduates
(seniors).



Relativity:

- A first course in general relativity by Bernard Schutz. One
of the best textbooks ever written. Suitable for one semester and so
good that an advanced undergraduate could legitimately teach themselves
from it. With a good lecture, this book is suitable for most upper
level undergraduates.

- Gravitation by C. Misner, K. Thorne, and J. Wheeler. Not
exactly useful for teaching, but it is indispensable as a reference.

- Gravitation and Cosmology by Steven Weinberg. Again, not
great for teaching (and the cosmology stuff is out of date), but a good
reference to have.



Electricity and Magnetism:

- Classical Electrodynamics by J.D. Jackson. The epitome of
hell is a graduate class using this book, but it is indispensable as a
reference.

- Introduction to Electrodynamics by David Griffiths. An
excellent text for undergrads.



Quantum Mechanics:

- Modern Quantum Mechanics by J.J. Sakurai. A terrific text
with a very intuitive introduction. Alone, it is more suitable for
graduate students, but with supplements I've used it with some more
advanced undergrads.

- Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Michael
Nielsen and Isaac Chuang. Not a straight QM book, but can be used to
teach QM. Is definitely suitable for undergraduates and is fairly well
written. One of my favorite books.

- Quantum Theory by David Bohm. This is his 1951 book which is
fairly orthodox, but is a great supplement for anyone who wants more
insight into QM. Was invaluable when I was learning QM for the first
time.



Thermodynamics:

- An Introduction to Thermal Physics by Dan Schroeder. One of
the best textbooks I've ever read. Suitable for one semester undergrad
courses or higher. Very intuitive.

- Statistical Physics by Landau and Lifshitz. Ancient and
likely out of print, but a great reference. These guys had insights way
ahead of their time.



Introductory Physics:

- Six Ideas That Shaped Physics by Tom Moore. One of my
personal favorites and one of the best texts I've ever read. I use it
in multiple classes. It's calculus-based but can be modified
successfully for an algebra-based class.

- Fundamental of Physics by Halliday and Resnick. What physics
collection is complete without a copy of this? I wouldn't use it for
teaching anymore, but it's a classic worth having.

- The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Feynman, Leighton, and
Sand. Ditto what I said about Halliday & Resnick.

- Calculus-based Physics by Jeff Schnick. A unique book that
hopefully is the beginning of a trend. It delves into the math fairly
deeply and is awesome if you really want to know what's going on.



Mathematical Methods for Physicists:

- Mathematical Methods of Physics by Matthews and Walker. Not
the best to teach from, but a reference worth having.

- Mathematical Methods for Physicists by Arfken and Weber. The
standard text on this topic. Suitable for advanced undergrads (maybe
even mid-level undergrads).



Other books worth having on your shelf:

- Calculus and Analytic Geometry by Thomas and Finney. Used to
be the standard calculus textbook. Everyone should have a copy.

- Elementary Differential Equations by Boyce and DiPrima. Not
the world's best text, but it got the job done and was once one of the
standards on the subject.

- Elementary Linear Algebra by Howard Anton. Again, one of the
standards (or used to be). Pretty well written for a math book too. I
still use it.

- Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary I have the ninth
edition. If it hasn't changed format, this dictionary is great because
it gives you the origins of words. It was a required text for a logic
class I took as an undergrad. If you're looking for interesting
definitions, try Chambers' Dictionary.

- Warriner's English Grammar and Composition I still have mine
from high school. Want to know how to diagram a sentence? It's in
here. A lawyer friend of mine has twice called me to consult my
Warriner's. Great for writing papers free of grammatical errors.

- CRC Math Tables Can't live without them. If you're really
hard-core you should also get Tables of Integrals, Series, and Products
by Gradshteyn and Ryzhik

- Chemistry by Zumdahl. Do they still print this book? I used
it in high school and college!

- Logic by Copi (Copi actually wrote a couple of texts on logic
- any of them are useful to have).

- Princinples of Physical Cosmology by PJE Peebles if you're
into cosmology. Getting a tad out of date, but a great book and
suitable for undergrads.

- Cosmological Physics by Peacock. A little more up to date
that Peebles, but more advanced. I doubt many undergrads could hack it.

- An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie.
The standard introductory text for hard-core astrophysics. Suitable for
advanced undergrads and graduate students.



Finally, I could add some "must have" engineering texts to this list
(anything by Irv Shames, but especially his trilogy of introductory
mechanics texts) but I'll skip that for now. I could also recommend a
couple more in quantum mechanics, namely the book by Gasiorowicz which
was sort of standard for awhile, and the book by Liboff which is great
for teaching the "mechanics" of it (i.e. shut-up-and-calculate). I
don't know quantum field theory all that well, but a great introduction
is Tony Zee's book Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell which, despite the
title, is a serious textbook. I'm not entirely certain it's the best at
teaching the calculations though. Much better conceptually. The
standard QFT text these days is probably Peskin and Schroeder (the same
Schroeder as above) An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, though the
standard used to be Bjorken and Drell.



=========================

Ian T. Durham, PhD, FRAS
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Drive, Box 1759
Manchester, NH 03102-1310
Phone: +1 603 222 4073
Fax: +1 603 222 4012
E-mail: idurham@anselm.edu
Blog: http://quantummoxie.blogspot.com


"Pure mathematics is the poetry of logical ideas."
-Albert Einstein



-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
[mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf
Of kyle forinash
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 5:33 PM
To: phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
Subject: [Phys-l] rebuilding my (lost) library

Hi All;

While on sabbatical a significant number of my reference
books (undergrad/grad physics) went into storage on campus
and have disappeared. Some were fairly old so I'm thinking
now is the time to upgrade. I don't want to buy one of
everything that is available but rather a couple of good
books in each area (mechanics, quantum, mathematics/mathphys,
solid state/condensed matter, field theory, thermo/statmec,
relativity/gravitation, numerical methods, etc.) would be handy.

So my question is: In your opinions, what are the essential
texts/references for upper level undergrad/1st year grad
school physics (say, the best 2 or 3 in each field)?

I still have the Feynman lectures and several good intro
texts. But is Goldstein still the gold standard for
mechanics? What about other areas like biophysics, sound,
optics, astronomy, etc?

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

kyle


--
------------------------------------------
'Violence is the last refuge of the
incompetent.'
Issac Asimov

kyle forinash 812-941-2390
kforinas@ius.edu
http://Physics.ius.edu/
-----------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l