Theoretical Physics Book by Dover - Essential Guide for Students & Researchers | Study Quantum Mechanics, Relativity & More | Perfect for Academic Learning & Self-Study
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DESCRIPTION
Among the finest, most comprehensive treatments of theoretical physics ever written, this classic volume comprises a superb introduction to the main branches of the discipline and offers solid grounding for further research in a variety of fields. Students will find no better one-volume coverage of so many essential topics; moreover, since its first publication, the book has been substantially revised and updated with additional material on Bessel functions, spherical harmonics, superconductivity, elastomers, and other subjects.The first four chapters review mathematical topics needed by theoretical and experimental physicists (vector analysis, mathematical representation of periodic phenomena, theory of vibrations and waves, theory of functions of a complex variable, the calculus of variations, and more). This material is followed by exhaustive coverage of mechanics (including elasticity and fluid mechanics, as well as relativistic mechanics), a highly detailed treatment of electromagnetic theory, and thorough discussions of thermodynamics, kinetic theory and statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and nuclear physics.Now available for the first time in paperback, this wide-ranging overview also contains an extensive 40-page appendix which provides detailed solutions to the numerous exercises included throughout the text. Although first published over 50 years ago, the book remains a solid, comprehensive survey, so well written and carefully planned that undergraduates as well as graduate students of theoretical and experimental physics will find it an indispensable reference they will turn to again and again.
REVIEWS
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4.5
This book is truly excellent as a compendium on most of classical physics (minus General Relativity, which deserves a volume all to its own). As already noted, it is a little dated on its approach to quantum mechanics, but it is interesting to get a viewpoint on the subject from the founding era of quantum theory. It can be difficult to get through, but any advanced undergrad who is comfortable with basic calculus, vector analysis, and differential equations should be able to learn the whole of classical theoretical physics and leave it with a sense of the underlying unity and mathematical beauty of nature. I would just like to point out one minor mistake in physics... On page 244 where Joos explains length contraction in Special Relativity, he writes, "a body which appears to be spherical to an observer at rest relative to it will thus appear to a moving observer to be an oblate spheroid." This is a popular and incorrect misconception about length contraction in SR. Although the theory predicts that the geometry of a moving object should become distorted, this does not mean that an observer will SEE this object as visually distorted. In fact, a human observer will instead see the objected as not distorted but instead as rotated. This is known as the Terrel-Penrose effect and it wasn't fully recognized until sometime in 1959 (44 years after Einstein proposed the damn thing!!), so it is easy to see how this could've been overlooked by Joos. Other than that infinitesimal hiccup, this book is an incredible buy for only $20 and deserves to be on the bookshelf of every serious physics lover!
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