The Nature of Solids: With 173 Illustrations

by Alan Holden

Book Overview

Unusually clear, accessible introduction to contemporary theories of solid-state physics. Nonmathematical treatment of heat, atomic motion, electrons in solids, many other topics. "Excellent." --... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486270777
• ISBN13: 9780486270777
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Clear, concise deep explanations with minimal math

I've recently had to obtain a broad background in material science, and this book was a wonderful introduction. Holden gives great physical explanations with a wide array of simple models that are tailored to give the insight necessary to understand diverse topics such as crystal structure and symmetry, electrical conductance and specific heat with nary an equation. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants good understanding of the different physics in solids without getting bogged down in the math. It was a wonderful introduction for me.

Re-reading it, 35 (?) years later

I thought I read this book when I was an undergraduate, but the date of publication on my hardback copy says it must have been later. In cleaning out our library my wife asked, "You don't really still want this old book, do you?" I said that I thought I once thought it was pretty good, so let's keep it. And I started to re-read it.Maybe 35 years as a working physicist (nuclear, not solid state) has colored my view of things, but this book is rather better than just "pretty good". It is amazing how much meat of the subject that Holden can get across in a qualitative, non-mathematical way! He doesn't use the words "Fermi gas" -- in fact, Fermi isn't even noted in the index -- but the concept comes across very well. It is remarkable how much I learned about the nature of solid state, but maybe that only says how much I had forgotten from the first time I read it.Very nice! Thank you, Alan Holden.

Good intro to the solid state

This short, easy to read book serves its purpose: a non-mathematical but informative intro to solid state physics. The illustrations and descriptions are good. I read it as self study before solid state physics and it was useful in the non-mathematical setup (albeit mostly review) for the mathematics of the class.