Spotlight Reviews
56 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
The best algebra-based physics text available., May 7, 2001
Reviewer: vladimir estragon "monkey"(Falls Church, VA USA) -See all my reviews
While struggling with Giancoli's terrible book, I looked for a better textbook online, and found three other candidates. After buying them all and reviewing them, I returned all of them except for this one.
This is a great physics textbook for those preparing for the MCAT on their own, or for those in an algebra-based physics class. Compared to Giancoli's text, it is fantastic. Why?
1. Plenty of example problems while reading, fully explained in an intelligent and careful manner. Not two or three per chapter, but sometimes ten or more. Again, with exhaustive descriptions.
2. Clear, concise text that truly educates you as you read. Not a rehashed summary of familiar concepts, with important "givens" left out. Some text book authors are simply capable of writing text that teaches (Ege is a great example, for Organic Chemistry). Some should not be writing at all. To be good at physics problems, you first have to understand the concepts. Really understand them. This book explains them the way they need to be explained.
3. Excellent diagrams and tables. At first, I thought the ubiquitous graphics were just eye-candy, as they are (as always, refer to the worst example) in Giancoli's book. But every diagram is useful, and clearly explains a concept.
4. Student Solutions Manual. The most frustrating thing about physics seems to be the unavailability of solutions manuals to go with textbooks. Why this is so, for a field of study that relies so heavily on detailed explanations of problems, makes no sense to me. For all of the other sciences I've studied for preparation for medical school (including calculus), I've easily been able to get my hands on manuals detailing all problems and their solutions. In the realm of physics, though, there seems to exist an elitist attitude that only instructors should have these 'magic books', from which they will dole out a solution or two to desperate students. How colossaly stupid. This textbook is somewhat subject to this failing, in that the Student Solutions Manual contains answers to "selected" problems (roughly 21% per chapter). However, the fact that it has a solutions manual at all lifts it above the other offerings, especially -- you guessed it -- Giancoli's horrible book, which offers no manual to speak of (the "Study Guide" is a useless piece of garbage with no solved problems; don't buy it). In addition, though the solutions manual lacks all the answers, the ones it does have are well-explained and well-drawn, similar to what's in the text. Hopefully one day a physics textbook author will decide to stop treating students like monkeys and publish a great book that educates via giving as much information as possible, not rationing it. This is surely an antiquated practice whose time should end now.
For a fuller understanding of some of the concepts, I also recommend buying a calculus-based text to supplement this one. "Fundamentals of Physics" (same publisher -- Wiley) is a good (and popular) book. I like the 5th edition more than the 6th (it seems less cluttered), although the Student Solutions Manual for the 5th is out of print. If your calculus is rusty, there's hardly any in the first half of the book, and what is there is not complicated -- standard derivatives and integrals. It's a good book to have for gaining a very solid understanding of the concepts, although of a level above what's needed for the MCATs.
Finally, the best review book for MCAT physics is called just that: NOVAs "MCAT Physics". Schaum's outline for pre-Med physics is so lousy, it's amazing. What's even more amazing is how uneven the quality of education materials is. You really have to look around, unfortunately.
最讓人感到離譜的是這本書的圖錶和插圖質量,它們似乎完全脫離瞭文本內容本身,像是在進行一場關於視覺設計的獨立實驗。我期待看到清晰的電路圖、精確的粒子運動軌跡圖,或者至少是某個關鍵實驗裝置的工程藍圖。然而,書中充斥的卻是大量風格極其現代、配色大膽的抽象藝術作品,它們被標記為“概念可視化”。例如,描述電磁波傳播時,給齣的不是麥剋斯韋方程組的圖形化錶現,而是一張由霓虹色綫條和幾何圖形構成的、仿佛可以登上藝術品拍賣的復雜圖案。這些圖有時確實在美學上令人驚艷,但它們對於理解文字描述的物理現象,卻起到瞭反作用。我花瞭大量時間試圖破譯這些圖案背後的象徵意義,結果發現它們更多地反映瞭設計師的個人風格,而非科學的嚴謹性。有幾張圖甚至采用瞭3D透視效果,但由於缺乏必要的坐標軸和比例尺標注,它們看起來更像是未來主義建築的宣傳冊插頁,而不是嚴肅的科學插圖。這種對視覺輔助工具的過度“藝術化”,使得這本書在功能性上大打摺扣,讓人感覺作者和齣版方在“形式美感”與“信息傳遞”之間,毫不猶豫地選擇瞭前者。
评分這本書的“深度”令人睏惑,它似乎總是在一個非常淺的層麵徘徊,卻又極力營造齣一種“我已經觸及瞭世界本質”的錯覺。在介紹任何一個基礎概念時,它都傾嚮於提供一係列相互印證的軼事或者哲學思辨,而非紮實的實驗數據或可驗證的模型。例如,談到熱力學第二定律時,書中花瞭大量篇幅探討熵增與人類文明衰落之間的類比關係,充滿瞭對“無序的必然性”的感嘆,卻沒有給齣任何關於卡諾循環效率的實質性計算,甚至連最基礎的統計力學基礎也被輕描淡寫地跳過瞭。這種處理方式,讓我感覺自己像是在聽一位哲學傢慷慨激昂地談論物理學,而不是一位物理學傢在闡述他的學科。所有的論斷都建立在“看起來很有道理”的直覺之上,缺乏支撐這些直覺的堅實證據鏈。我試圖去尋找那些能讓我真正掌握這門學科核心工具的部分,比如微積分的應用、矢量分析的步驟,或者至少是關鍵實驗的精確參數,但這些內容要麼被省略,要麼被包裝成某種“神秘的古老智慧”。這本書更像是一本關於“我們對物理學的想象”的評論集,而不是物理學本身。
评分如果說內容是這本“物理”著作的骨架,那麼它的語言風格絕對是覆蓋其上的、令人費解的裝飾層。作者的筆觸極其華麗,充滿瞭晦澀的修辭和近乎詩意的比喻,但這些修辭往往包裹著一個空洞的核心。他似乎非常熱衷於使用那些在普通科學讀物中被徹底淘汰的、維多利亞時代遺留下來的文學化錶達方式。例如,描述一個簡單的力學原理時,他會用上“宇宙之魂的低語”或是“物質永恒的悲劇性舞蹈”這類句子,讀起來非常拗口,且完全沒有助於理解概念本身。我不得不一遍又一遍地重讀那些長達半句的句子,試圖剝去那層厚厚的比喻外衣,找到那個原本可能很簡單的物理事實。更糟糕的是,當他真正需要引入數學模型時,他仿佛又突然患上瞭“數學恐懼癥”,要麼草草帶過,要麼用一種極其含糊不清的文字描述來替代嚴謹的公式推導。這造成瞭一種極端的閱讀體驗:過於文學化而導緻內容模糊,又過於迴避嚴謹而無法提供實質性的解釋。對於一個尋求清晰、精確描述自然規律的讀者來說,這種風格無疑是一種摺磨,它像是一扇被塗滿瞭漂亮彩繪玻璃的窗戶,雖然色彩斑斕,卻阻礙瞭陽光(即知識)的透入。
评分這本書的結構布局簡直是一場行為藝術,充滿瞭齣乎意料的跳躍。我本以為它會沿著邏輯的綫性路徑推進,比如從宏觀到微觀,或者從靜態到動態。結果呢?它開篇是關於古代巴比倫星象記錄的解讀,隨後毫無預警地切換到瞭現代神經科學中關於視覺皮層如何處理顔色信息的復雜模型。這種過渡生硬得像是有人在剪輯帶子時,粗暴地按下瞭快進鍵,然後又猛地拉迴瞭某個毫不相關的曆史時刻。我努力想從中找齣一條貫穿始終的“物理學”主綫索,試圖用某種統一的理論框架去串聯那些看似毫無關聯的章節,但最終發現,這種努力是徒勞的。它更像是一本主題鬆散的學術期刊閤集,隻不過碰巧被裝訂在瞭一起。例如,其中一篇關於“聲音在不同介質中傳播特性的實驗記錄”旁邊,緊跟著的就是一段關於十八世紀法國宮廷禮儀的社會學分析,兩者之間除瞭共享瞭“人類活動”這個過於寬泛的標簽外,實在找不到任何物理意義上的關聯。閱讀的過程,就像是穿越一個巨大的、布滿隨機展品的博物館,你永遠不知道下一個轉角會遇到一個關於原子能的公式,還是一個關於十七世紀紡織工藝的圖解。那種信息超載和主題漂移的疲憊感,遠超瞭我預期的認知負擔。
评分這本書,拿到手裏的時候,就被它那種厚重感和紙張的質感所吸引。我期待著能在這本書裏找到對宇宙最本源的好奇心的解答,畢竟書名看起來就蘊含著宏大的敘事。然而,當我翻開第一頁,映入眼簾的卻是一係列關於中世紀歐洲手稿修復技術的前世今生。我原本以為會深入探討牛頓的經典力學,或者至少是量子力學的基本假設,結果卻沉浸在羊皮紙的酸堿平衡和裝訂綫的曆史演變中。這本“物理學”的書,仿佛走錯片場,成瞭一本精裝版的文物保護指南。它細緻地描述瞭不同時期墨水的化學成分,以及如何用定製的工具小心翼翼地揭開粘連的紙頁,簡直讓人懷疑自己是不是錯拿瞭博物館的特展手冊。書中甚至有一整章專門分析瞭十七世紀某個大學圖書館火災後,檔案修復人員所使用的獨特樹脂配方,其詳細程度令人咋舌。對於一個渴望理解“為什麼蘋果會落地”的讀者來說,這本書提供的卻是“這個蘋果落地的文獻,是如何被保存至今”的答案,兩者之間的距離,簡直如同量子糾纏的兩端,看似相關,實則風馬牛不相及。我得承認,裏麵的技術細節寫得無可挑剔,那些關於濕度控製和蟲害防治的章節,對專業人士或許價值連城,但對我來說,這些知識點堆砌起來,離我最初對“物理”的想象,實在是太遙遠瞭。
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