Product Description

Emphasizes the fundamental principles of physics and how to apply them. Designed to help students develop physical intuition, and help them build strong problem-solving skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #523325 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1274 pages

About the Author
Roger A. Freedman is a Lecturer in Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Freedman was an undergraduate at the University of California campuses in San Diego and Los Angeles, and did his doctoral research in nuclear theory at Stanford University under the direction of Professor J. Dirk Walecka. He came to UCSB in 1981 after three years teaching and doing research at the University of Washington.At UCSB, Dr. Freedman teaches in both the Department of Physics and the College of Creative Studies, a branch of the university intended for highly gifted and motivated undergraduates. He has publishes research in nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, and laser physics. In recent years, he has helped to develop computer-based tools for learning introductory physics and astronomy.When not in the classroom or slaving over a computer, Dr. Freedman can be found either flying (he holds a commercial pilot's license) or driving with his wife Caroline in their 1955 Nash Metropolitan.T.R. Sandin is Professor of Physics at North Carolina A&T State University. He received his B.S. in physics from Santa Clara University and his M.S. and Ph.D from Purdue University. He has received awards for excellence in teaching from both Purdue University and NC A&T. He has published research articles in low-temperature solid state physics, the Mossbauer effect, ferromagnetic anisotropy, and physics teaching.

Customer Reviews

An under-appreciated classic
Everyone says War and Peace is a great classic, but not everyone wants to read it, and few actually did.

For physics majors and honors students, this is a wonderfully rich and thorough text, teach them the "right stuff" from the start. My students have had only good things to say about it. It doesn't shy away from complicated math when it is necessary. A good example of that is in the chapter on gravitation, the potential due to a spherical shell of mass is fully worked out by integration: ~1/r outside the shell and constant inside. This is an important result that gets used repeatedly, e.g., later in electrostatics. Every book tells the readers about the inverse-square force law between two point objects, but few explain how to go from points to spheres, or why spheres may be regarded as points sometimes. Some texts dodge the issue completely, others state the result and not explain it. As a result, it is common to see students get the wrong idea that whatever formulas that are good for point objects are good for spherical objects, because they plugged the numbers into the formulas and got the right answers! That's exactly not what we like to see in physics. With this book, even if the students are not ready to do the math, they at least know the difference and the explanation is there for them to read when they are ready.

The exercises and problems in this text are real gems. There are numerous real-life applications of basic physics. Some are like mini research reports. These are enriching and stimuating for the physics loving students. They get to see the difference between doing science versus doing contrived mathematical excercises. I have a colleague X who once remarked to me that another colleague Y assigned some really interesting problems to his students that he had never seen. We later discovered the secret: Y got most of his problems from this text!

In sum, this is a more advanced introductory text that has the right stuff. If you're enthusiastic about physics, it's highly recommended.

If I can understand it...
Little background. I'm a trucker in the summer, and a short order cook in the winter. I loved this book. I first bought a used copy of the fourth edition, and after a few years I have purchased the 10th edition with the modern physics. That stuff I still have trouble with.
I got these cause I had a ton of questions about how stuff works. And they break it down. I had done well in Physics before, but this was a whole new ball game. The mathematics is not explained especially well, but the physics behind it is. And once you understand that, the math comes.
For those of you who knock this book, well, they must be doing something right, cause 1) their on the 10th edition. and (2) They were able to reach a shmoe like me.

A really great physics text
This book is several tiers above in quality what I was forced to deal with as a textbook when I took Freshman Engineering Physics years ago. So when my long-frazzled freshman physics volume finally gave up the ghost, I replaced it with this 10th edition of University Physics. This is how all scientific textbooks should be written. In this book, all concepts are clearly described, there are plenty of instructive figures, and most of all, lots of detailed examples and solved problems. I am specifically recommending the 10th edition, rather than the eleventh edition which is called "University Physics with Modern Physics" by Young et al. That is because with the exception of the modern physics section, the two books are virtually identical. I don't know why authors do this to students. Just as a volume gets affordable they make a minor change and foist a triple-digit price tag upon the poor students, which is largely unaffordable to many undergraduates. In fact this text actually deletes some material from the classical physics section in the 11th edition! So, unless you MUST have this book because you are taking a class and there is no other way around it, or you are interested in the greatly expanded (and very good) modern physics of the 11th edition, save yourself some major bucks and buy this edition used. To prove to you that this out-of-print volume has virtually the same classical physics content as the 11th edition, I present to you the 10th edition's table of contents:
MECHANICS.
1. Units, Physical Quantities, and Vectors.
2. Motion Along a Straight Line.
3. Motion in Two or Three Dimensions.
4. Newton's Laws of Motion.
5. Applications of Newton's Laws.
6. Work and Kinetic Energy.
7. Potential Energy and Energy Conservation.
8. Momentum, Impulse, and Collisions.
9. Rotation of Rigid Bodies.
10. Dynamics of Rotational Motion.
11. Equilibrium and Elasticity.
12. Gravitation.
13. Periodic Motion.
14. Fluid Mechanics.
THERMODYNAMICS.
15. Temperature and Heat.
16. Thermal Properties of Matter.
17. The First Law of Thermodynamics.
18. The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
WAVES/ACOUSTICS.
19. Mechanical Waves.
20. Wave Interference and Normal Modes.
21. Sound and Hearing.
ELECTROMAGNETISM.
22. Electric Charge and Electric Field.
23. Gauss's Law.
24. Electric Potential.
25. Capacitance and Dielectrics.
26. Current, Resistance, and Electromotive Force.
27. Direct-Current Circuits.
28. Magnetic Field and Magnetic Forces.
29. Sources of Magnetic Field.
30. Electromagnetic Induction.
31. Inductance.
32. Alternating Current.
33. Electromagnetic Waves.
OPTICS.
34. The Nature and Propagation of Light.
35. Geometric Optics.
36. Optical Instruments.
37. Interference.
38. Diffraction.
MODERN PHYSICS.
39. Relativity.
Appendices.
Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems.
Credits.
Index.
To be fair these are the extra chapters that you get if you buy the 11th edition:
38. Quantum Physics I: Photons, Electrons, and Atoms.
39. Quantum Physics II: The Wave Nature of Particles.
40. Quantum Physics III: Quantum Mechanics.
41. Atomic Structure.
42. Molecules and Condensed Matter.
43. Nuclear Physics.
44. Particle Physics and Cosmology.
Plus, there is some web-enabled stuff you get with the 11th edition, but I don't think it is worth the huge price tag!