Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers. Stephen Thornton, Andrew Rex

brand new, perfect condition, as it said it would be. came the next day even though they said it would be 2 or 3. wonderful.

The book was exactly as ordered and arrived in great shape in a timely manner.

I'm about to finish the on-line course taught by one of the authors, Steve Thornton (University of Virginia). The book lends itself to self-study and the 3rd edition is partly the result of Dr. Thornton's teaching an on-line course for several summers. Many of the students are traditional physics and engineering undergraduates, but many others are career high school physics teachers that give Dr. Thornton feedback from a teacher's viewpoint. The publishers publish a Student Solutions Manual which shows worked out solutions for about 25% of the problems which I recommend. Answers to many other end-of-chapter problems are listed (without explanation) in the back of the text book. Dr. Thornton's course web site has additional worked out problems, streaming mini-lectures, syllabus, and simulations -- see .modern.physics.virginia.edu. There's also a Yahoo discussion group, "modern_physics" for the course (you have to be a student in the course to actually post questions). Many of the end-of-chapter problems have a simple "twist" to them that requires some thought; you can't just mindlessly "plug and chug" your way through equations. Previous reviewers have panned earlier editions for allegedly sloppy editing and errors. I've worked probably 200 examples and end-of-chapter problems and caught zero typos. The web site's errata page for the 3rd edition shows just 2 typos. That's about as tight an editing job as I've seen in any large science or engineering textbook. This book can be used by any smart student that's had freshman physics and calculus. Where multivariable calculus or differential equations are needed, the authors walk readers through the mathematical calculations more thoroughly and with greater explanation. I highly recommend the book, the solutions manual and the on-line course.

I used this book as my first book covering Modern Physics. Though other reviewers stated the book has typos, that's not what I remember about it. What I do recall is just how clearly these authors were able to present some of the difficult topics in modern physics. I have shared the book with other students preparing for boards, and they too felt like it was an excellent text that was very well written and easy to understand!