Book Description

Unlike most other texts on the subject, this clear, concise introduction to the theory of microscopic bodies treats the modern theory of critical phenomena. Provides up-to-date coverage of recent major advances, including a self-contained description of thermodynamics and the classical kinetic theory of gases, interesting applications such as superfluids and the quantum Hall effect, several current research applications, The last three chapters are devoted to the Landau-Wilson approach to critical phenomena. Many new problems and illustrations have been added to this edition. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

One approach.
Few books on Statistical Mechanics present a treatment with a grounding in the Boltzmann Transport Equation. It is more usual the case that a statistical approach is adopted, in which the canonical (or other) ensemble is arrived, and subsequent results somehow refer back to the the ensembles. Huang seems to wish to proceed from a strongly microscopic and kinetic point of view. There must be great strength in his approach, as statistical phenomena, in reality, is built up from this semi-classical sort of physics. If you like kinetic theory, then buy it. However, for those of us who find more comfort in relating to a more statistical approach, this book is fearsomely unreadable.

But do read it for a description of the Boltzmann Transport equation.

An adequate Stat. Mech. book
I would suggest that the previous reviewer get him/herself a tutor. (The formula Huang uses, log n! = n log n - 1, is correct for large numbers.) Statisticam Mechanics is a notoriously hard subject to present lucidly and clearly. Huang does a fairly good job. I was a little disappointed with his treatment of critical phenomena at the end of the book; for a much better and more comprehensive treatment, read Nigel Goldenfeld's "Lectures on phase transitions and the renormalization group".

Not standard, Not so bad
As repeated by reviewers below, this is NOT STANDARD textbook on statistical mechanics because it stresses the kinetic theory. If reader would like to learn the equilibrium theory, this book might be embarassing. However, this book is recommended to anyone who is interested in "unusual" viewpoint. I prefer Huang to other numerous too standard textbooks. But I am a little disappointed that some interesting topics are removed in the new edition, such as the Chapman-Enskog method.

Now, it is NOT SO BAD.

Least favorite of all I've seen
Huang approaches the subject as a series of proofs: he does not make physical arguments, and his writing is wooden. Instructors--avoid this book!

Some have said that this book approaches stat mech from the refreshing view of kinetic theory. But it leaves out the Fokker-Planck and Langevin approaches, by which the Boltzmann equation is usually solved. Anyone interested in this approach would be *far* more rewarded by Landau's Physical Kinetics.

Anyone interested in Gibbs theory should consult Landau or Sommerfeld.

Anyone who wants good problems (and real applications) would be better served by the canonical McQuarrie.

Anyone who wants a feel for what the subject *actually now is* should see Kadanoff or Chandler. Actually I think allowing students to leave stat mech without seeing the monte carlo algorithm or solving a stochastic equation is a crime.

Unreadable
The reviewer below who said that this book pursues primarily a kinetic theory - Boltzmann Transport Equation approach, got it right. It really is a fearsome, and by and large, pointless read. Our professor used this book in our stat. mech. class back in 1992. He also used Mahan's Many Particle Physics book in our solid state course and de Genne's Superconductivity text in our superconductor course, so that gives you an idea of what kind of person likes Huang. Most students I've talked to feel that this text is the worst sort of student pain. The pain you feel when after exerting colossal effort trying to understand, you realize at the end of the semester that you didn't learn anything, and that you could have, if only the instructor had chosen one of any number of better books. I am completely mystified as to why and how this book has reached a 3rd edition. Perhaps there are too many physics professors out there who don't care about pedagogy. ... Read more

Book Description

Statistical physics concepts such as stochastic dynamics, short- and long-range correlations, self-similarity and scaling, permit an understanding of the global behavior of economic systems without first having to work out a detailed microscopic description of the system. This pioneering text explores the use of these concepts in the description of financial systems, the dynamic new specialty of econophysics. The authors illustrate the scaling concepts used in probability theory, critical phenomena, and fully-developed turbulent fluids and apply them to financial time series. They also present a new stochastic model that displays several of the statistical properties observed in empirical data. Physicists will find the application of statistical physics concepts to economic systems fascinating. Economists and other financial professionals will benefit from the book's empirical analysis methods and well-formulated theoretical tools that will allow them to describe systems composed of a huge number of interacting subsystems. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

target audience not defined
I find the book rather poorly written in the aspect of providing links between statistical physics and its application in economics. As a physicist with a background in stochastic processes, I was looking for an introduction to their applications to economic analysis, complete with examples and discussion of the methods' limitations. The book was somewhat disappointing in this respect. Quite often, in many chapters, the necessary math is explained, then some aspects of how it is manefest in economical data are presented and then the chapter ends, leaving the reader wonder what the specific cases may be and if it is practical to use those methods at all. Above all, there is very little discussion as to what the results actually mean, in economical terms.
I believe the book may be helpful for reseachers active in this field but I would not recommend it as a first introduction to econophysics. For economists, the math may be rather difficult to go through as some of the fundamental concepts are not defined consistently. For physicists with no previous exposure to econophysics, I would prefer to see more economics.

Not bad, considering...
The book is not bad considering the total lack of existence of intelligible literature in this supposedly vast field.

The content is really a collection of quickie crib-sheets on a sundry of topics with nominally common theme: Finance.

A lot of the actually useful stuff is the author's previously published papers on price-return distributions.

Aside from his own previously published work, he has a good tutorial on the GARCH scheme though with precious little follow up reading resources for delving in deeper (or even sideways).

This book is priced far too high given its content and depth.
Look for a used copy, and do not count on the author to answer questions by email.

First in the new field
I found several parts of this book useful while preparing lectures for an introductory econophysics course in Fall, 2001. The discussions of convolutions of distributions, Levy distributions and scaling are well-written and easy to follow. In the brief discussion of the St. Petersburg Paradox I missed a critical discussion of expected utility, which was invented by Bernoullli to 'resolve' that paradox. Spurred by von Neumann and Morgenstern, neo-classical economics relies on the idea of expected utility, which seems empirically to be wrong. The chapter on time correlations is also very readable (although Wiener processes are not 1/f^2 noise!). ARCH and GARCH methods are discussed, saving the student from the pain of reading badly-written papers by mathematically-minded economists, but the chapters on options are too brief with nothing new. The best introduction to options is still the original Black-Scholes paper (excepting their erroneous claim that CAPM and the delta-hedge strategy produce option pricing pdes that agree with each other). Also, it would have been nice to have seen a discussion of CAPM. The discussion of algorithmic complexity left me cold (see my earlier books and papers on nonlinear dynamics), and I would like to have seen a critical discussion of the EMH. These criticisms are ok, though, the gaps leave something for the rest of us to work on.

Physicists Land On Planet Economics
SINCE the last decade, physicists have been trying to cope with the issues traditionally approached by economics using their own tools and methodologies. This research has been dubbed 'econophysics'. One reason why this incursion should be welcomed is the failure of mainstream economics to recognise financial systems as complex systems. Take mainstream international finance, for instance. In the most respectable workhorse model--so-called 'new open economy macroeconomics model'--foreign exchange rates always reach some sort of stable equilibrium. To put it bluntly, this means that currencies do not exhibit complex behaviour.

However, financial markets do demonstrate several of the properties that characterise complex systems. What is more, they are highly complex, open systems in which many subunits interact nonlinearly in the presence of feedback and stable governing rules. Earlier attempts to find chaos in financial data, for instance, have been disappointing exactly because the phenomenon is likely to emerge in systems which are only moderately complex. Although it cannot be ruled out that financial markets follow chaotic dynamics, econophysics assumes that asset price dynamics are stochastic processes.

A fundamental commitment of the mainline model of international finance is to theory itself, and not to data. Modelling is devoted to equipping the discipline with an underlying rational behaviour at the individual level. Yet this is at odds with the fact that financial markets are prone to collective 'irrational exuberance'. Instead, econophysics attemps to build up stochastic models that encompass essential features observed in the financial data. Now that the time evolution of many financial markets is continually monitored, it is possible to test the accuracy and predictive power of the developed models using available data. One common objection to such a practice is that it is impossible to perform large-scale experiments in economics that could falsify any given theory. The authors note that this limitation is not specific to economics, but also affects such well developed areas of physics as astrophysics, atmospheric physics, and geophysics. By analogy with the activity in these more established areas, we are able to test and falsify any theories associated with the current available sets of financial data.

Complex systems can sometimes behave in remarkable simple ways. These are reflected in power law distributions and scaling. The authors illustrate these concepts and others, and apply them to the financial time series. The book is thus useful not only for physicists but also for economists and people in the financial world. Some familiarity with probability theory or statistical physics is required, though. Economists dissatisfied with the mainline approach of their discipline will find the book opportune. The others might end up welcoming econophysics as well. After all, economists implicitly see physics as nature's economics. What is then wrong with physicists thinking of economics as social physics?

good introduction to physics of finance
The book is a quite nice introduction into the concept of application of physics to financial markets or to say better financial models. Both authors have published numerous papers in this same field, and this book I would say clearly summarizes some of their work as well as the work of other researchers. As I said the book is a good introduction to the subject, and it does not go into some great detail of each topic discussed, so if you are interested in something more detailed I would recommend not to read this book (but only if you already are familiar with the general topics of financial modeling). Authors presented current research results, whith a very nice and detailed bibliography, which I would recommend using if you are very interested in financial modeling, as there are some very good research papers and books cited.

As an introduction the book goes on to describe the basic points of today research process in this field, and some of the questions that yet have not been answered. There is very nice presentation of random walk and Levy processes, which seem to be quite an attraction in current research. Scaling and correlation is explained from the level of indices as whole down to a individual company stock prices. Some other topics which the authors discuss are:scaling, time correlation, correlation of financial time series, ARCH and GARCH processes, market turbulence (quite an interesting connection to physics), where they end the book with some option pricing theories.

The book is written in a very understandable language, where basic probability theory should be known to the reader. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this field, but also to researchers, where I think they would find this book very useful introduction, as it describes some of the major work done in this field. ... Read more

Book Description

A unified and systematic treatment of the main results and techniques of relativistic fluid dynamics with an emphasis on waves and shock waves. The first four chapters provide an introduction to the fundamental principles of relativistic fluid dynamics and magneto-fluids.The remaining chapters present specific topics, including non-linear electromagnetic waves in relativistic cold plasmas, relativistic asymptotic waves, and relativistic shock waves.Examples of the applications of the theory to plasma physics, nuclear physics and astrophysics are presented. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Serves a hungry audience
The subject of perfect and imperfect fluids in curved backgrounds obviously has direct relevance to astrophysical phenomena; and particularly in this age of the HST / gravity wave observatories. However, the subjectremains mathematically burdened by the singularities of black holes andshocks; and many old unresolved problems exist in this field. This text isan ideal source for researchers seeking to learn what is known, what can bedone, and what remains to be done.

The monograph contains sections onperfect and imperfect fluids in flat space, perfect and imperfect fluids incurved space,relativisticmagneto-hydrodynamics (ala Vlasov), combustion,shocks, and more.Emphasis is given to alternative / standard /non-standard formulations and analyses that are conducive to fieldconfigurations that evolve into shocks. Numerical researchers -- among manyothers including astrophysicists-- will find much useful material in thosesections alone.

The writing of this text is concise with a level of rigorthat is affordable to beginning graduate students and workers in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

Enormous progress has been made in inflationary cosmology in the past few years and this book is the first to provide a modern and unified overview of the subject. Coverage examines every aspect of inflationary cosmology and carefully compares predictions with the latest observations, including those of the cosmic microwave background, the clustering and velocities of galaxies and the epoch of structure formation. Problems are included throughout to help the student develop a thorough understanding. An ideal introduction to what promises to be one of the most fruitful topics of research in science in the next decade, this volume will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, theoretical physics and applied mathematics. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A mess of a book, but still very useful.
This book is a total mess. Lots of errors in the equations. The notation is somehow inconsistent. The authors switch between regular time and conformal time, Fourier series and integrals, etc. Instead of progressing in order, the authors cover the subject in a back-and-forth way that drives me crazy! Still this is very useful compendium of information on Inflationary Theory, at a graduate to professional level. A future edition, more up-to-date, with the errors corrected and a more consistent notation would be a masterpiece. Provided Inflation withstands the test of time (it is doing fine for now!)

Five stars because of the reasonable price!

Concise, modern and lucid: pretty good
This is a nice book that introduces all of the basic material for inflation. I found that most of it can be found elsewhere (eg. in Peacock's book), and it isn't necessarily any more comprehensive in Liddle & Lyth, because the pace of exposition is slow. However, it's worth buying for the insights the authors give, for the careful treatment of cosmological perturbation theory and gauge choice, and because it is approached from an explicitly supersymmetric direction. (There is no technical information about supersymmetry, however, and if you are after a book on supersymmetric cosmology, then you will have to look elsewhere. I think Peter D'Eath has a book of this sort, published by CUP.) There is a "beyond the slow roll approximation" section, which is good, and the chapter of inflationary model building is the best I have seen.The level of mathematics is pretty much nil, anyone with basic algebra could cope. Other points of interest are that (1) the authors develop all spectra (power spectrum, spectrum of tensor perturbations etc.) from what they call the "curvature perturbation", which is new to me, although there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with it, (2) the section on large-scale structure (Press-Schecter et. al.) which is included, and (3) the fact that the bibliography gives eprint numbers for the quoted papers. A minor downside is a small amount of forward referencing. It's concise, modern and lucid, and the website has up-to-date info. Excellent. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Covers a lot of ground, but not very well
At first glance, this book is accessible and well-written. This is an illusion. In this book, Jones tries to cover the theory of finite and continuous groups, representation theory, lie groups and algebras and applications to quantum mechanics, molecular vibrations, special relativity etc. In doing this, he tries not to confuse the reader with too many mathematical details, seeking instead introduce physical ideas quickly. This is in principle a sound idea, but Jones' implementation is abysmally poor. In particular, he often uses terms he does not define and abuses the notation he does define, even in theorems. (The fact that he doesn't prove many theorems makes it harder to work out the meanings of terms from context.) Even worse, there are often theorem-like statements in the text that are not even pointed to as such, but merely mentioned in passing. E.g. 'You don't need to know what a compact group is, just that the last equals sign is OK because the group is compact' (paraphrased) Many of his examples fail to illuminate the principles he is trying to explain and have the flavour of my students' homeworks when they have copied their answers from the back of the book. E.g. 'The answer is 2+1=3' (paraphased). All right, and whence the 2 and 1?

I had taken a basic course in groups based on Armstrong's Symmetry and Groups (which I heartily recommend for a first pass at the subject, although a book on algebra in general might be better) and was reading Jones together with some classmates (post-grads) in the physics department. We spent altogether too much time trying to guess what Jones was trying to say and after that, trying to believe what we thought he said. In the end, after ploughing through six chapters of this book and feeling like Alice in believing more and more impossible things every day (paraphrase! :-) ), I decided to take the long road via 'real maths' books. I'm going through James and Liebeck at the moment, which so far has been a breath of fresh air compared to Jones. After that, Isaacs's book on representations and Humpreys' and Adams's on lie groups and algebras have been recommended to me. It may be of course that there are other physicists who do a better job than Jones. I hear that the books by Cornwell and Wu-Ki Tung are better than Jones', but have not looked at them in too much detail. Perhaps other reviewers will have suggestions.

Both profound and applied with master simplicity
It is very customary for a physicist that when he wants to understand the role of group theory in physics, he has to go a very long way before he is ready to answer a physical question using the newly learnt tools of group theory. This book however
has a more straight-forward approach allowing you to both comprehend almost all the formal aspects of group theory and solve specific problems in physics. Besides the book uses a very simple notation and many illustrative examples, which is ussually a great flaw in almost all of the classical texts (Hamermesh's, Weyl's and Wigner's ). Finally, the book is self-contained and leads, without elaborated mathematics (or which is even better, with the virtue of not making it look complicated), to the applications and the problem-solving strategy. ... Read more

Book Description

Cracks and Fracture consists of nine chapters in logical sequence. In two introductory chapters, physical processes in the vicinity of the crack edge are discussedand the fracture process is described. Chapter 3 develops general basic concepts and relations in crack mechanics, such as path independent integrals, stress intensity factors and energy flux into the crack edge region. Chapters 4-7 deal with elastostatic cracks, stationary or slowly moving elastic-plastic cracks, elastodynamic crack mechanics and elastoplastic aspects of fracture, including dynamic fracture mechanics. Appendices include general formulae, the basic theory of analytic functions, introduction to Laplace and Hankel transforms and description of certain basic relations, for instance for stress waves in solids. There is an extensive bibliography, containing references to both classical and recent work, and a comprehensive index.

Key Features
* Presents an extensive bibliography containing references to both classical and recent works and a comprehensive index
* Appendices include general formulas, the basic theory of analytic functions, introduction to Laplace and Hankel transforms, and descriptions of certain basic relations, for instance for stress waves in solids ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Heavily into the Theoretical
Even though this book is primarily intended for researchers and grad students, it leaves very little of the topic of fracture mechanics untouched. All the way from calculating relatively simple K factors to the intricate J- and P- Integrals, the book provides the equations that are needed for almost any research project, especially in the Elastic-Plastic region.

It addresses 'arrays of cracks', which is quite unusual, as well as other fairly rare geometric crack situations that are rather difficult to find in the literature.

One other interesting thing to note is the substantial amount of material devoted to the treatment of Mode II and Mode III cracks, not found in many other texts since Mode I is the predominate crack propogation mode in industry.

I would highly recommend it for any researcher in the field, but generally not recommend it for general practice limited to LEFM (Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics). ... Read more

Book Description

Finite Element Methods For Maxwell's Equations is the first book to present the use of finite elements to analyze Maxwell's equations. This book is part of the Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computation Series. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Nice source book for math and physics
This is a great book for wide variety of audiences -- students in high school to professionals (engineers and scientists) with many years of math training. If you are looking for rigorous derivations or theorem/proofs, this is not the book. But if you are looking for a handy source that you can go to everyday in your professional life, then this is the book. I commend the authors for designing an accessible book with cogent presentation and exceptional clarity.

Plethora
This text is a hard to find collection of formulas, theorems, symbols and laws that took me quite some time to find. If you like math and/or physics and want to know all you can, then this text is your best bet. It is laid out logically and coherently and culminates in a unified picture of two closely related fields of study. I highly recommend it to any scientific mind. ... Read more

Book Description

This textbook, available in two volumes, has been developed from a course taught at Harvard over the last decade. The course covers principally the theory and physical applications of linear algebra and of the calculus of several variables, particularly the exterior calculus. The authors adopt the 'spiral method' of teaching, covering the same topic several times at increasing levels of sophistication and range of application. Thus the reader develops a deep, intuitive understanding of the subject as a whole, and an appreciation of the natural progression of ideas. Topics covered include many items previously dealt with at a much more advanced level, such as algebraic topology (introduced via the analysis of electrical networks), exterior calculus, Lie derivatives, and star operators (which are applied to Maxwell's equations and optics). This then is a text which breaks new ground in presenting and applying sophisticated mathematics in an elementary setting. Any student, interpreted in the widest sense, with an interest in physics and mathematics, will gain from its study. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Good stuff badly written
I'm going to mention the second volume almost exclusively.This is where the action is located.It is hard to find any equivalent treatment of circuit theory using algebraic topology. You should have some mathematics background or some patience and a stack of books on algebra and algebraic topology so you can understand what these authors write so poorly.However, while the text (vol.2) loses a star for being horribly written, it gains four stars for the amazing content.If you are patient you will see a side of circuits you have never dreamt of and then you will be led into the generalized (continuous)version which is electromagnetics.

If you are looking for some really accessible and really interesting mathematics on circuits and EM buy this book (or buy it used, I bought my hardcover for 10$) You might also find it useful to consult the appendix in Frankel's Geometry of Physics for comparison.

Have fun and keep in mind that the book is written by sadists, clever and intelligent, but sadists all the way!

Simply fascinating!
In short, I find this kind of a book very rare indeed.

If you are doing physics and electronics at the undergraduate level, this book will open your eyes to a whole new unified approach to several on-the-surface different topics. I wonder why many course designer's haven't looked at this book and realized how accessible it has made some of the relatively modern concepts. The authors laudably attend on each concept with a passion to make the reader confident of grasping at least a few different ways of looking at it, keeping the core well in view all the time. It is also to their credit to have kept the beauty in the ideas intact with a good balance of abstraction and concrete instances.

In particular, the authors treatment of exterior calculus is an eye opener if you are new to the topic. For a student only exposed to traditional methods, it is a revealer to see the laws of linear electrical circuits as well as Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism being expressed in precisely the same language. It is totally to the credit of the authors to have presented the concepts in such a simple to understand progression. For example, they make you see clearly why you have understood the divergence theorem or Stokes theorem of conventional vector calculus if you've grasped the essence of the calculus of functions of a single variable. Its a fantastic voyage folks, and you've got some of the best guides methinks.

All those who find physics and mathematics a drag at college should grab this book and be enlightened. I wish they fix some of the errors in the book in future editions, but the errors don't at all hinder the learning.

Ten thumbs up!

An interested amateur physicist
I don't understand why some of the reviews here are mediocre. Although I haven't read the book to any depth, I have a knack of knowing whether a book exudes quaity by browsing briefly through it to get a general feel; the breadth of the material presented is breathtaking and at least eye-opening. Here are some reviews from the back cover...
American Journal Of Physics:-Not only is the mathematics clean, elegant, and modern blah, blah, blah... This is first rate!
Times Higher Education Supplement:-
...There is to my knowledge no comparable book, and it is hard to imagine a more inspiring one.
Remember also that there are two volumes.

a difficult book with few rewards
I can only say one good thing about this book: it steered me towards a couple of really worthwhile books. I began to read Bamberg/Sternberg about five years ago, when I was looking for a book that could explain the mathematics that physicists use. It was heavy going from the first chapter, although I am not a neophyte in mathematics. I found it slow, obscure, devoid of true proofs and explanations when I needed them most. As another reader said, the books is perfunctory while it seems it wants to aim high. I finally gave up, after the tremendously confusing chapter 5 on scalar products. But I followed a couple of their bibliographic suggestions. In particular, I read the very enjoyable and rewarding Loomis and Sternberg, "Advanced Calculus," a classic textbook, not an easy one, but one that rewards hard work. Loomis/Sternberg is a comprehensive, solid, insightful book that covers a lot of the material of Bamberg/Sternberg's first volume.I took up Bamberg/Stenberg this week again, after a hiatus of several years, having digested several books on linear algebra, topology, and functional analysis, and I still find it very difficult to read Chapter 1. The reason: nothing is fully explained or proven. Rather, the book reads like a collection of hints that barely connect and in places is painfully slow. My advice: don't try to read it unless you are forced to. For a neat, useful, modern introduction to mathematical physics, try Hassani. Or go back to that jewel, Loomis/Sternberg, if you can find it.

a course in mathematics for students of physics
i could hardly believe that in the chapter on linear algebra, the authors never discuss any but 2 dimensional spaces (claiming that it is easily generalized.not so!)... and the chapter on differential forms left me scratching my head...it introduces them by a taylor expansion, and claims that they are mappings, but never explains or motivates that.

i found that this book covers its topics only perfunctorily, and aims to high, thinking that it is more mathematical than it actually is.i would recommend frankel instead (a slightly more advanced text, but much better written). ... Read more

Book Description

Phase transitions occur in several processes of physical and engineering interest.This book deals with the analysis of models of solid-liquid systems.Its main purpose is to offer an introduction to the classical Stefan problem and to some of its physically motivated extensions.

The presentation is characterized by a strict interplay between physics and mathematics.Macroscopic, mesoscopic and two-scale models for Stefan-type problems lead to the formulation of initial and boundary -value problems for nonlinear PDEsTheir analysis is developed in the framework of Sobolev spaces.Nucleation and surface tension phenomena are also discussed and new results are presented.All the analytical tools used are illustrated, to make the volume self-contained.Special concern is devoted to variational inequalities, to the recently developed technique of compactness by strict convexity.

This book is aimed at students and researchers in applied mathematics and in nonlinear PDEs, and also at physicists and engineers with mathematical background. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

models of phase transitions
This book focuses on Stefan problem which arises in many areas of physics. It deals both classical and weak stefan problem and also the relations between stefan problem and phase field equation. It covers from physicalviewpoint to mathematical viewpoint. This self-contained book isrecommended for math. graduate students who pursue this area. ... Read more

Book Description

Divine Harmony describes Pythagoras’s wanderings in ancient Phoenicia, Egypt, Babylon, and Greece, and explores key Pythagorean ideas as taught at his scholarly community in southern Italy. This fascinating study of the sixth-century Greek scientist and mystic includes illustrations, a map, a new introduction, and an updated bibliography. Drawing on the writings of Pythagoras’s disciples, the authors present a lively portrait of a man whose ideas continue to resonate. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

For the magic crystal, metaphysical set.
I wanted a book that gave me more insight into a great thinker. A mathamatician who gave us the theorum bearing his name. What I got was a book where in the first chapter, the author says that Pythagoras may have been a direct decendent from the Gods! Went down hill from there. No information on mathematics, astronomy, geometry, physics or any of the other fields that Pythagoras studied and helped advance. Instead we get a glorified view of a cult leader and a focus on the metaphysical.

Most mysterious of ancient philosophers
Considered by many to be the first important Western teacher of wisdom, exalted by such luminaries as Socrates and Plato, the stories that have come down to us about Pythagoras and his teachings continue to resonate and have value in our modern world. This precious little book (159 pages) is written simply, introducing the life and teachings of one of the most mysterious of ancient philosophers.

The book is organized brilliantly; touching on all aspects of the life of Pythagoras and his teachings, ranging from knowledge and friendship, mathematics, music, care of the self and magic and miracles. Particular attention is devoted to the Pythagorian community and the followers of his teachings during his relatively long stay on the planet, (he nearly reached the age of one hundred) until his enforced death by his enemies through starvation, while taking asylum in the temple of the Muses.

At the end of the book is written The Golden Verses, a poetic guideline or introduction to the Pythagorean way of life. In a word, this is an ancient 'self-help' treatise that should be posted on one's shaving mirror, and attempted to be practiced everyday. If you do anything at all, read these ancient verses, as they are inspiring and valuable to living. As the authors state about them: "That they are hard to date with accuracy attests to the fact that they convey timeless truths."

As a starting point to the study of philosophy or just mere curiousity about the source of the famous Pythagorean Theorem, Divine Harmony is a valuable book to read and own.

This book is recommended highly.

There IS hope for the future of humankind - back in the past
Have you ever wondered why the world seems to be on the brink of utter chaos? Have we put aside the admonitions and teachings of ancient philospohers and thinkers only to find ourselves firmly entrenched in a world bent on destruction? The Pythagorean mindset is one of stark beauty, simplicity, common sense, and discipline. Pythagoras was a Greek seer (some thought him to be a god), with the ability to think with his soul. After a time, his life was threatened. He lived for a time in southern Italy where he had a following of like-minded people. He was a man of wealthy and noble birth, yet his words speak to the hearts of all manner of humankind. This book is a treasure - priceless. Were our world leaders to take the words of Pythagoras to heart, we might be able to mend the wounds of this old world. Pray that it may come to pass that the words of the ancients will win the approval of the modern thinkers.

Pythagoras - What goes around comes around
Have you ever wondered why the world seems to be on the brink of utter chaos? Have we put aside the admonitions and teachings of ancient philospohers and thinkers only to find ourselves firmly entrenched in a world bent on destruction? The Pythagorean mindset is one of stark beauty, simplicity, common sense, and discipline. Pythagoras was a Greek seer (some thought him to be a god), with the ability to think with his soul. After a time, his life was threatened. He lived for a time in southern Italy where he had a following of like-minded people. He was a man of wealthy and noble birth, yet his words speak to the hearts of all manner of humankind. This book is a treasure - priceless. Were our world leaders to take the words of Pythagoras to heart, we might be able to mend the wounds of this old world. Pray that it may come to pass that the words of the ancients will win the approval of the modern thinkers. ... Read more

Book Description

This book describes all aspects of Monte Carlo simulation of complex physical systems encountered in condensed-matter physics and statistical mechanics, as well as in related fields, such as polymer science and lattice gauge theory. The authors give a succinct overview of simple sampling methods and develop the importance sampling method. In addition they introduce quantum Monte Carlo methods, aspects of simulations of growth phenomena and other systems far from equilibrium, and the Monte Carlo Renormalization Group approach to critical phenomena. The book includes many applications, examples, and current references, and exercises to help the reader. ... Read more

Book Description

This text provides a thoroughly modern graduate-level introduction to the theory of critical behavior. Beginning with a brief review of phase transitions in simple systems and of mean field theory, the text then goes on to introduce the core ideas of the renormalization group.Following chapters cover phase diagrams, fixed points, cross-over behavior, finite-size scaling, perturbative renormalization methods, low-dimensional systems, surface critical behavior, random systems, percolation, polymer statistics, critical dynamics and conformal symmetry.The book closes with an appendix on Gaussian integration, a selected bibliography, and a detailed index.Many problems are included.The emphasis throughout is on providing an elementary and intuitive approach.In particular, the perturbative method introduced leads, among applications, to a simple derivation of the epsilon expansion in which all the actual calculations (at least to lowest order) reduce to simple counting, avoiding the need for Feynman diagrams. ... Read more

Book Description

In The Knowledge Web, James Burke, the bestselling author and host of television's Connections series, takes us on a fascinating tour through the interlocking threads of knowledge running through Western history. Displaying mesmerizing flights of fancy, he shows how seemingly unrelated ideas and innovations bounce off one another, spinning a vast, interactive web on which everything is connected to everything else: Carmen leads to the theory of relativity, champagne bottling links to wallpaper design, Joan of Arc connects through vaudeville to Buffalo Bill.

Illustrating his open, connective theme in the form of a journey across a web, Burke breaks down complex concepts, offering information in a manner accessible to anybody -- high school graduates and Ph.D. holders alike. The journey touches almost two hundred interlinked points in the history of knowledge, ultimately ending where it begins.

At once amusing and instructing, The Knowledge Web heightens our awareness of our interdependence -- with one another and with the past. Only by understanding the interrelated nature of the modern world can we hope to identify complex patterns of change and direct the process of innovation to the common good. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Good if you can't get enough of Burke
I admit it, I am a big fan of James Burke. Ever since the fascinating BBC series, "Connections" I have been an avid reader of history. Most interesting to me is Burke's over-arching thesis regarding the role of technology in shaping history. I have gladly added this to my collection of Burke's works. However, I found the method of presentation, which amounts to an attempt to turn the work into a sort of hypertext, gimmicky and distracting. I gave up on trying to dart back and forth among the various interconnected sections. Perhaps, in a few years, I may find this device useful for some purpose, but I cannot see how it is any sort of advance over a standard index.

Nonetheless, I recommend this to anyone with an interest in history and technology. Burke simplifies and makes intriguing the progress of human technology, and its role in the progress of humanity itself, in a way that is fun and engaging to read. This book made me go back and re-read old history texts with a new outlook. As far as Burke's books go, however, I recommend _The Pinball Effect_ more highly as the device does not distract as much from the content. I eagerly await his next television series. I do so hope one is in the offing. hint, hint, Professor Burke!

Enjoyable!
Very 'browsable' little book. If you like Burke's TV programmes (notice the hoity toity British spelling) and don't mind his hurried non-sequitur transitions form one topic to another- then you'll enjoy this book. The Knowledge Web is so jam-packed with facts and anecdotes that you'll be able to annoy friends and dinner companions for fortnights (I can't stop) to come with little gems of knowledge.

Misleading Title, Blurb, Introduction, Etc.
This book was a sorry disappointment. I will preface my further remarks by saying that I am a huge fan of Mr. Burke's television productions, and (ironically) I actually enjoyed the book a great deal, but for mostly all the wrong reasons.

The fact is that the book does not deal with what is alluded to by the title, the jacket copy, or the author's introduction. Unfortunately, those were the only elements that I scanned when looking over the book in the store (and then buying it online ;-). The marketting blurb on the cover says "From electronic agents to Stonehenge and back...". Well, there was a very small bit about electronic agents and believe it or not, Stonehenge wasn't mentioned once throughout the entire book. Mr. Burke was not well served here by his market driven editors.

The only reason I still enjoyed the book is that I love both history and technology, and that's the terrain through which this addled account rambles. Regrettably, this book was more like an extended outpouring of jumbled, loosely 'connected' trivia from a hyper-loquacious Alzheimer's patient, than anything truly salient or purposeful. There was absolutely no discernible point to the narrative. The author's attempt to put the work into some kind of prosaic hyperlink format was a bit embarrassing as well. Lastly, the book ended abruptly and arbitrarily, almost as if Mr. Burke's nurse had come in and said "That's all for today. It's time for Mr. Burke's evening feeding. Maybe you can come back tomorrow." I hope not.

Stimulates Your Mind
This is almost like a technological "Ulysses" by James Joyce. The author almost does a stream of consciousness, and does repeat himself at least three or four times through the 262 page book. It is a journey that reminds me of Andy Grove's book on change, as you see how inventions, technology, greatly influenced history and the advance of our knowledge. Most importantly, it shows how new things can make people a lot of money, those that don't change, lose a lot of money, and is fascinating---although the connections of events wanders from century to century and subject to subject. I thought this was not only fascinating, but there are many levels in the writing just as there are in James Joyce's fiction. This book is pure fact, however.

Disappointing
Burke writes well, but this book seems little more than a historical account of ideas and inventions. Of course, the reader could use the heavy cross-referencing to read this book in many different ways (ie taking different paths through the book) but the prospect doesn't excite me as much as it appeared to excite the author.

While the book purports to show the linkages between ideas and inventions, too often an idea came way out of left field with no apparent connection to the current stream of thought or historical characters.

I had really hoped for something a little more focussed on the evolution and use of knowledge per se rather than an account of how things came about, which can be read in any of a dozen other books. ... Read more

Book Description

The second edition of this highly successful textbook has been completely revised and now includes a new chapter on vectors. Mathematics is the basis of all science and engineering degrees, and a source of difficulty for some students. Jenny Olive helps resolve this problem by presenting the core mathematics needed by students starting science or engineering courses in user-friendly comprehensible terms. First Edition Hb (1998): 0-521-57306-8First Edition Pb (1998): 0-521-57586-9 ... Read more

Reviews (3)

One of the best books for self study
As a finance professional, I was becoming overwhelmed with the growing complexity of financial products. Over time, my patch work math education was beginning to fray resulting in growing frustration and loss of confidence.

Jenny Olive's book is very helpful for people entering into a self study math program to bring together their fragmented college level math education and build mathematical understanding. If you were like me, the fast pace of college level courses forced you to cut corners and rush through material without the deep understanding that builds confidence. The book begins with Algebra and moves on to Trig and Calculus. The explanations are extremely lucid and the exercises are put together intelligently to move you toward greater complexity. And yes, there is no substitute for working out the problems as any good mathematician will tell you. I disagree with a previous reviewer on this score. Although, I felt (somewhat arrogantly) that I did not need to review Algebra, I found myself red faced and stuck in some of the more advanced problems. Fortunately the clear explanation and repeated problem solving gave me the insights that I was lacking. I found it helpful to work with a graphing calculator to help visualize some of the mathematics. It's also a great way to learn a graphing calculator!

I understand that Ms. Olive is adding two new chapters to her next edition, which she has kindly made available on her website for persons who own the current version. It would be nice if she would make it available in a downloadable PDF version.

I am hoping that the author will choose to follow this up with similar books on Probability and Linear Algebra. Her recommendations for further reading would also be very helpful. Great math books (and math teachers)are worth their weight in gold. Buy this book for your math library. You won't regret it.

A great review
I didn't take any Math senior year, and I took 2 years off after high school, and now I'm going to be a Computer Science major, so I really needed this book! I bought it a week ago and I'm halfway done, so now I won't have to take precalculus over again. The previous reviewer is right, it could include more, but if I have time, I'll just buy a Schwab outline to cover vectors and so on. One thing about this book is that it has few exercises, which is fine, because what person self-studying is actually going to do 30 exercises . . . I would, but the few exercises gets me moving through the material faster.

self help book for alg/trig/log/calc I. (applied science)
This book is written for someone who has been exposed to the subject but did not understand it, or has not had a math class in a while. Ms. Olive has taken extra effort to help the students avoid the pitfalls often encountered in these math topics. This attitude is reflected throughout the book. I felt that with the numerous problems solved at the back of the book (in detail), the price of this book,was a frugal investment. With vectors and additional physical science problems added to this book, I would give it 5 stars. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (7)

Too much in too-little space.
I would only recommend this book to people already fairly well-versed in the topics it covers. In this book, the authors attempt to cover FAR TOO MUCH material for such a short text. As a result, the reader ends up confused and with a feeling that the author isn't telling them NEARLY everything he knows, even about the basics. The book's coverage of complex analysis is truly pitiful, and I would recommend A Course of Modern Analysis by Whittaker and Watson, even at the much higher 60 dollar price, as a useful source on this topic. Concerning such topics as Lebesgue integration, Hilbert Space, and orthonormal bases--consult good books on real-analysis and/or functional analysis rather than this book. Perhaps the author's greatest mistake is the book's complete lack of excercizes and it's few-and-far-between, weak examples of applications to problems. That said, the reason I still gave this book three stars is that it is good in one way--namely, as a reference for those who already know the material.

A very good book
I strongly recommend this book! I am university lecturer and I was using it over recent years as a main source for the course
"Mathematical Methods in Physics". The material is well chosen,
supplemented with good examples which illustrate interesting and
non-trivial issues in an accessible for a student way.
It is a safe and a good buy!

There is a better book
I recommend getting Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics by Byron and Fuller (also from Dover). You'll get more (quantity and quality) for your money. Mathematics For Physicists just isn't very good, poorly written compared to Math. of C. and Q. Physics.

Mathematics for Physicists by Dennery and Krzywicki
This is a splendid textbook for both practicing engineers and scientists, not just physicists. It is a mine of useful techniques
and formulae and I would recommend it both as a reference text
for use when working and for general dipping into.

The book covers an extraordinarily wide amount of the sort of
mathematics that both students and professionals might use on a
day-to-day basis, and it clearly written and well laid out.

A very worthwhile purchase.

Seamless, wonderfully consistent, immense didactic economy
This is easily the best book I have found for the purposes of an engineer (such as this reviewer), or perhaps a physicist, wishing to acquire certain areas of mathematics quickly. In my current work (in electromagnetics) I have had to brush-up-on/acquire topics including: function spaces; vector spaces; differential equations (with adjoint operators etc.); and Green's functions and identities. This book beats all others I consulted for this purpose. Although the book is seemless, chapters are mainly self-contained. The absence of problems/exercises is actually beneficial for my purposes, since the author has made the text correspondingly more complete. There are, however, a small number of judiciously placed examples, with quality rather than quantity being the author's apparent principle;- Once you have absorbed Professor Dennery's exposition of a particular topic, you are then aptly equiped to go to other texts for examples. In summary, this is a gem, Dennery is the 'Kubrick of maths writers'. ... Read more

Book Description

Practicing engineers in several fields can turn here for an accessible overview of the basic principles in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer--all in a self-instructive, easy-to-follow format. Focuses on developing a sense of the underlying physical mechanisms, and uses numerous examples and illustrations to help illuminate the real, thermal/fluid problems faced by engineers. Omits a heavy mathematical and theoretical emphasis in order to foster a more physical, intuitive approach to the subject matter. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great for learning the FUNDAMENTALS.
I thought this was a very well written, organized book.The concepts were explained very clearly.It was great to finally find an understandable book on this subject; other thermo/fluids books that I have read haven't been as informative and comprehendable.

One of the drawbacks, however, was the fact that the examples presented within the book were very simple and didn't cover the concepts in as much depth as I had hoped.Many complex topics that were in the questions at the end of the chapter hadn't been covered well enough in the preceding text to allow them to be both solved AND understood.Furthermore, there were some thermo/fluid topics that weren't covered in the book at all that I thought should have been (compressible flow, for example).As a result, when I took the course in college, my professor had to print out pages from other thermo books to compensate for this.

Despite this, however, there were many pictures that accompanied the examples and again, as stated above, it was easy to understand.I was very impressed with that, given the abstractness of the subject, and the difficulty that other authors have had explaining it effectively.

The bottom line: It was a great book to learn about the fundamentals.I suppose, according to the title, it has served its purpose.However, if you want to go into depth with this subject, go elsewhere.

A couple of comments
I will begin with the good things. This book contains a LOT of information. The tables are very extensive, and the subject matter is very broad. The derivations are generally easy to follow and I found the text itself even enjoyable to read at times. These things upped my opinion of the book from one star to two. However, the example problems are generally not sufficient to help with the far more complex problems in the back of the chapters. As a further frustration, only about a sixth of the problems include the solutions. The end result is that for a homework one is left leafing through the book in a futile search for more extensive guidance on the very extensive problems, all the while not knowing if you didn't mess up the problem already in the first calculation you made. For example, I have this textbook for my second course in fluid dynamics. For my first homework, I had a three day weekend to complete 3 problems. 30+ work hours later (and one shot weekend) I have no idea if I'm right on the first one and I'm still stuck on the last one. I dislike having to go to reciation, so it's not unusual for me to spend lots of time on problems and reading the book in order to figure out the homeworks on my own. But this book is quite frankly kicking my arse. Considering that this is my second fluids course (I'm an aerospace eng student) you would think I would be better at fluids. However, my first fluids textbook was also a Cengel book, and that book was next to useless as well. My overall conclusion: A great book for reading and catching derivations with lots of good tables and a wide array of topics. But it's a huge frustration waiting to happen if you plan on working the problems/preparing for an exam.

Very interesting read!
I am currently taking an introductory course in thermodynamics. I find this book to be a very interesting read. The book uses both SI units and Imperial units, which at times seem very confusing. There is a lot of information on this book, thus this book is a good starting point to learn about thermodynamics. ... Read more

Book Description

In demonstrating how Newtonian gravitational theory and Euclidean geometry can be used and developed in Earth’s environment, the text discusses earth’s gravitational field; matrices and orbital geometry; satellite orbit dynamics; geometry of satellite observations; statistical implications; and data analysis. Prerequisites: introductory course in college physics and a first-year course in calculus.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Classic in the Field
A reprint of this book is long overdue because I know several people who have a crumpled photocopy of the original addition and many others who have searched for a used copy without success. This book is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in astrodynamics and especially gravity field modeling.

The book begins with a concise description of the earth's gravity field in terms of potential theory. After a quick refresher on matrices and orbital elements, Kaula proceeds to describe the motion of an artificial satellite. In particular, he provides a detailed analysis of gravity field perturbations upon the evolution of the orbital elements including secular effects and resonance effects. The final chapters are concerned with modeling observations used to track satellites, using the observations to estimate the true motion of the satellite, and estimating geodetic information from the motion of the satellite.

Although first published in 1966, this book remains one of the best volumes available on satellite theory and geodesy. It is still used as a reference and textbook by many if not most experts in the field. However, the work is certainly not perfect. Kaula gives a concise and complete coverage of the subject, but it comes at the cost of loads of equations with little explanatory text. This can make it somewhat difficult to follow. It is certainly not written as a popular guide for the general public. Nevertheless, many astrodynamicists are delighted to have this volume available from the good folks at Dover. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

a marriage of geometry and algebra made in heaven
In 1990, I came across Hestenes' book New Foundations for Classical Mechanics in a university bookstore, and immediately purchased it. In 1999, I finally purchased the paperback version of CA to GC (Kluwer, please keep the paperback in print!). An engineer by training, I was previously only familiar with college vector analysis and with indicial tensor notation. These two books revolutionized my understanding of the algebraic representation of geometric information. Amazon.com now has the "look inside" feature in place for this book, so you can check the table of contents.

Science proceeds both by discovery and by a process of recasting what has been learned in simpler and clearer form. It is the fruits of this latter process that are presented in CA to GC, though some new mathematical results are also introduced. The authors have succeeded admirably in recasting large areas of intermediate to advanced mathematics in a powerful unified algebraic language of exceptional clarity. The authors show how the traditional languages of complex numbers, quaternions, matrices, vectors, tensors, spinors and differential forms are all subsumed by the elegant language of Clifford algebra, and their calculi by Clifford analysis. Quite apart from the pleasure that the clarity of Clifford algebra/analysis affords, its value also lies in making it easier to understand what has already been discovered, and thus extending the mathematical grasp of the human mind. I have often seen the terms "breakthrough" and "groundbreaking" applied to paltry advances in science, mostly by the innovators themselves, but surely Clifford algebra/analysis is deserving of such an appellation. It has been long in gestation, but its time has come.

In CA to GC, the authors present a tour-de-force of mathematical exposition, the writing displaying the same perspicuity and precision that marks all of Hestenes' writing. While further-refined versions of much of the material of the book can now be downloaded in the form of pdf files from Hestenes' website, this book will go down in history as a classic of unifying mathematical exposition. The university student should begin with the New Foundations for Classical Mechanics book, but CA to GC should be read by every mathematician, physicist and engineering scientist. The reader contemplating learning Clifford algebra/analysis should also take a look at the rapidly growing amount of information online, and at other books on the subject. It is an honor for me to be the first reviewer of this book on Amazon.com. ... Read more