Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A great book for many researches. You might have learnt f=ma, e=mc^2, ..., you might or might not know there is also a great one existed and comes out from this book: w=const*E^f -- the number of states is proportional to the energy to the power of freedom -- a profound law in nature that rules very many!

One thing that distinguishes this book from the rest on stat mech is its emphasis on the physical content behind the equations. The author takes great pain to develop and elucidate, at every turn, a coherent physical picture for the edifice of statistical mechanics, in much the same style as the classic book by Tolman. However, if you are learning stat mech/thermo for the first time, you probably will be too busy familiarizing yourself with the equations to be able to appreciate the value of his explanations and motivations, which may just seem pointless rants. So, simply, if you are a newbie, try one of the more mediocre textbooks on stat mech, to learn the subject at a superficial level. Once you've mastered the more superficial stuff, you will come around to love this book, assuming that you are a reflective person.

I am trying to tech myself this subject and have found this book to be very difficult to follow. The author tries to explain the topics in many different ways at once, jumping back and forth between them and leaving the student trying to guess which analogy is being referenced. If N = number of ambiguous paths in the poor explanations, then amount learned L = 1/N!

N is a large number here. Avoid this book.

This book left me with two different impressions. On one hand,
it is extremely well readable (in fact, some explanations are
even too long and boring and could have been kept shorter).
As such, it is a very smooth introduction to equilibrium
statistical physics and its relationship with classical
thermodynamics. This is the good news.
The bad news is that under pages and pages of textual, simple
explanation, the author hides real difficult and subtle points.
So in fact it is a big book with a lot of pages that only
brings you up to a modest height in statistical physics.
Compared to Tolman, the information density is quite low.
But then, that's what makes it an easy read.

I think this book is an example of what sometimes happens when popularity overtakes quality. This book is definitely popular. Some might even call it a classic. But it can't really compare with newer thermodynamics books that more closely follow the modern approach of teaching thermo. It would not be fair to say that the book is incomplete, as it covers all of the necessary topics. However, it does a fairly good job of making the subject more boring than it needs to be. And to anyone who has learned thermodynamics must realize how serious a charge this is. The single biggest obstacle to students struggling to learn thermodynamics is that they find the subject boring, and this book doesn't do anything to help the situation.

I love this book. The abundant text used to explain concepts make the meaning of the equations crystal clear, and memorable. After struggling through a graduate statistical physics course without any previous exposure to statistical mechanics, and not understanding much, reading this book on my own was a pleasure.

The book is like a bible. Explanation is more then needed and you loose thread while reading it. Topics are not as consistent as they should be, you have to move back and forth to get the whole picture. In my openion the author is not much clear in conveying his point. A point can be explained with few lines but insted it is my overall impression that he use far too much text. Topics are much more understandable with the help of examples though. Honestly I get bored! Overall, it is a fair book and can be used as refrence material.

This as an excellent reference, but very difficult to follow, especially without a strong background in differential equations and other higher level Calculus. A good solid understanding of differentials and probabality distributions is a must. Unbelievably thorough, however, Reif leaves nothing to chance. Good luck getting a hold of a solutions manual, however, they are as rare as hens teeth.

I used this book during my undergrad years and found it so dry, that I had to drink a few glasses of wisky before I could jump into it. There is no question that the author knows his stuff, and that he has presented alot of important topics, however, it's just too dry. To this day, I can't remember a single thing I learned from that book.

I found that this book was very difficult to follow. It was often worded poorly. There were few examples and the problems did not relate to the reading. I only worked through the first 8 or 9 chapters and can't picture it getting much better. To make it through this book have a strong understanding of statistics. It is a shame that this is the standard the most graduate school expect you to have used. most of my class went out and found copies of kittle & kromer. much better book.