Modern Physics Supplement for Serway/Beichner/Jewett S Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 5th

by Raymond A. Serway

This best-selling, calculus-based text is recognized for its carefully crafted, logical presentation of the basic concepts and principles of physics. PHYSICS FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS, Sixth... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030269520
• ISBN13: 9780030269523
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Brooks Cole
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent product and Excellent service

The merchant was very honest and timely in the delivery of the product. I am extremely pleased with the product and service.

Mechanical Engineering/EIT certified, et. al accolades review of an Engineering Physics Textbook

I'm appauled at the low reviews of this tomb. I tutored, at one time, two dozen students in Physics, both for Engineering certified students [requiring Calculus and a textbook of this caliber] to General Physics for Business, Biology, and other non-calculus majors. This is an excellent product. I won't waste the time espousing the added value Feynman's Lectures on Physics Volumes I,II & III would have been useful to my undergraduate days in Mechanical Engineering--they were released by the time I was passed my Applied Mechanics with Calculus requirements. However, most of these reviews about self-taught and lack of deep examples wreaks of people who hate applied mathematics and actual theoretical physics with practical application--engineering. This isn't a textbook for the non-engineering/non-physics/non-applied mathematics majors. This is a textbook for those who thank themselves they understood this material before they take their Mechanics of Materials, Thermosystems, Heat Transfer, Dynamic Systems, Kinematics, Machine Design, Power Systems, Analog Circuits, Optics and other higher level classes focused on a specific sub-discipline within applied physics. This is an excellent example of Scientific Work. What I am appauled at is the Regular Price for the most recent releases. I picked up Volume 6 for $70 for any textbook is a publisher's way of robbing the public blind. The Calculus of Mechanics has not changed in over 100 years. The various applications has grown as our overall understanding of the Universe has grown. This pricing with stuff like PhysicsNOW and Infotrac are overkill to anyone who actually grasps the theory of applied Calculus in the physical sciences. Learn Calculus I, II, & III prior to Physics with Calculus and it becomes a simple application. Learn this with Calculus I and it becomes a real pain. That's life. Slow your demand to get out in 4 years down, get your Calculus out of the way and then take some of your General University Requirements [GURs] during summer sessions to get through it all. If you are doing this for self-study and later application, you have no excuse to learn Calculus first, at your own pace, then learn this book--you're not paying to hire a lecturer to walk you through it in detail. If you learn single and multivariable calculus [up to 3 dimensional integrals], Sequences and Series of Integrals and non-Diff-equations, then this textbook should be straight forward. You will have learned your Linear Algebra [Matrix Theory] and Calculus beforehand so that Gauss Law, Electromagnetic Field Theory, Optics, Modern Physics, Dynamics of 4 variables and more shouldn't be a problem. To step into the end game before you learn to walk and then punish the authors for not giving baby steps makes no sense.

Excellent Textbook!

I really am impressed with this textbook. It is one of the most organized texts I have ever used in college. The authors and publisher do an excellent job of "formatting" the topics. All equations are very well marked and numbered. Many other texts throw an equation in the middle of a paragraph and you can never find it when you need it. Not so in this book! You will always find just what you are looking for. They also do a great job of explaining the topics, with many many examples in each chapter. They provide "quick quizzes" in each chapter with answers at the end of the chapter that allows you to see how you are doing. They make liberal use of colors and illustrations which all help to ease the strain on the eye, and help the mind follow along. Overall, VERY GOOD BOOK! This book will never leave my library reference collection.

To learn the fundamentals of physics

I had used Serway's textbook before the second author joined. Different editions may exhibit slight differences, but this book is very suitable for those who want to gain a solid fundamental in physics. I believe this book is intended to address freshmen and sophomores, who major in math, sciences and engineering and it executes this task very successfully. It requires knowledge of calculus for better understanding. The chapters do not contain excessively long, boring discussions; rather, they are presented with adequate discussions. Worked-out problems are especially beneficial to understand the concepts. If one solves and understands these examples, they can attack the end-of-chapter problems more easily. The end-of-chapter problems are classified into 3 categories; standard difficulty, medium difficulty and challenging problems. Therefore, a student can make use of his time according to the level of difficulty of his course, background etc. If you little time to practice and a fair knowledge of the subject matter, you could easily start with medium level problems and try the harder ones as well. Some chapters contain some interesting articles about everyday physical phenomena which are related to the concepts presented. Hence, the student has a chance to relate theory and life and get a more profound comprehension of physics. Answers to odd-numbered problems are given in the back of the book, so you can check your results. Many numbers used in these problems are not hard to tackle without a calculator. A smart student can solve many problems with a pencil and paper.

Good, but not perfect

For my undergrad calculus based physics classes, I studied in books by three different authors: Serway, Halliday-Resnick and Tippler. Even though the contents and explanations are about the same, the great feature about Serway is that it usually provides more examples than Halliday-Resnick and Tippler. I do not think that Serway differs significantly from the books that are used most often in universities. No book will give you an A+ without spending some. My advice is that you should study from different physics books to prepare yourself as best as possible for a test or a quiz. Yet, I cannot dismiss that Serway has done a great job compiling all the topics and providing excellent examples and illustrations. If you are interested to learn undergrad physics, Serway, Halliday-Resnick and Tippler are the way to go. Choose the book whose cover picture is the one that you like.