Physics for Scientists & Engineers

A great read with clear and thorough explanations and derivations. Now a graduate student, I find myself retreating back to this, my freshman physics text, for explanations that are often taken for granted in many graduate level courses and texts. I remember my frustration with this text as a freshman. However, my difficulties then were mainly the result of my immaturity as a student, as well as the fact that this subject matter is indeed challenging. Instead of blaming the book, I should have been taking more time to read it carefully. Rushing through the text without any deep thought and reflection, and then immediately attempting the problems only led to more confusion and frustration. Thus, to a certain capacity, I can understand the low reviews given by some young students. But someday these students may find themselves cherishing this text as much as I do today.I am presently "re-reading" this text from cover to cover, and gaining several insights per chapter. (I say re-reading in quotes because I never really gave it a fair read the first time.) I especially appreciate the historical perspective that Dr. Lerner provides, discussing the people and the actual experiments that led to the physical breakthroughs that we take for granted today. I have almost finished reading the entire text, approximately 800 out of 1000 pages, in a little over a month, proving that it is indeed very readable. It is in my excitement about the overall understanding that I have gained in the past month or so, that I felt the need to write this review.The only reason I am giving this text four stars instead of five is because of a few significant typos that took me a while to get past (particularly in the second thermodynamics chapter under the reversible heat engines and refrigeration section, as well as a couple in the electricity and magnetism chapters). There are of course less significant typos scattered throughout the text as well, as there are in any text, but they are usually pretty obvious. As far as symbol usage goes, I found Dr. Lerner's choices fairly standard with most professional practice, so I am not quite sure why a reviewer had a complaint in this category.The care in which Dr. Lerner presents the material is remarkable. He constructs the theory in an elegant, inviting manner that is clear and detailed. He does not skip steps when manipulating equations, and makes every effort to base the mathematics in an intuitive physical context. For these reasons, I give this text a very strong recommendation. In fact, I have enjoyed this text so much that it has motivated me to order his follow-on text, "Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers".

I just struggled through the first semester of calculus based physics, which I needed to take for my mechanical eng major. We were using a very popular text and I was failing. A friend sugested I should use Lerner as a supplementary text and in just a few weeks everything became clear. I went from an F to A-. Lernr was a lifesafer and I will use it next semester, too. So will my friends.