Physics for Scientists and Engineers (Ch. 1-40)

Regardless of what the engineering undergrads say, this textbook is great. Previously an engineering undergrad myself - turned physics, this is by far the best physics textbook i've come in contact with. Higher physics textbooks are usually very dry, but this book makes entry level physics fun to learn. The reason all of the engineering undergrads have a problem with this book is because they are used to plugging numbers into equations. If you seek to get an actual UNDERSTANDING of the concepts and wish to brush up on your calculus, this is an excellent book for you. If you don't, I wouldn't recommend this or any other physics textbook.

Unfortunately, more than half the intro students at university are not up to the calibre required by university. These are the type of students who wouldn't like a CALCULUS RALTED introductory to physics textbook (or course for that matter). If you are well versed in physics and calculus from highschool, you should find this book to be very good. It gives u proofs for everything. If you're into plugging formulas into numbers and just solving problems using simple algebra, I suggest you take a look at the WILSON BUFFA textbooks on COLLEGE PHYSICS. If you up to the task of tackling university, this book is very good.

As a doctoral student studying Clinical Neuroscience, I have studied a lot of statistics and data analysis methods, and I wanted to learn more about physics. With a knowledge of math up through differential equations and the luxury of self-study time, I wanted a comprehensive and calculus-based introduction to physics text that I could learn from on my own, with plenty of examples. I orginally began studying Halliday-Resnick-Walker, which provides many excellent examples, but teaches physics in rather a "cookbook" fashion. Having now completed 6 chapters of text and odd-numbered exercises in Fishbane et al. 2nd ed. Extended, I would say that Fishbane et al. is more detailed, rigourous, and comprehensive; it can be challenging at times to understand some of the concepts presented and one needs to take some time and think deeply about what they mean, but that is the nature of science. Many of the exercises can be challenging, but once you figure them out and complete them, you feel that you really know something solid. Fishbane et al. came bundled with LOGAL's Physic's CD, which is absolutely outstanding as an interactive learning tool; the "experiments" with function parameters and the animation really bring the physics concepts and mathematics to life. I feel that Fishbane et al. teaches physics in a thorough and thought provoking manner. I only wish that they would have kept in all those derivations from the last edition.

I used this book throughout my first year of college physics. It is well written and the format makes it easy to extract information.The book's failing is its lack of examples; the examples given are generally good, but they are too few for a book at this level.

Very broad and comprehensive coverage of pyhsics topics and near physics topics (such as Thermodymanics). As a marketer in an electronics firm, I find this book's wonderfully detailed and lucid descriptions of various phenomena helpful and entertaining.