Rating: 
Summary: Do not see the point
Review: First of all, let me clarify that I do think the book is very well written for its purpose. But I do not really see the relevance of that purpose-teaching physics with half-baked math. I feel that the students will not retain much from learning physics in the particular fashion exhibited in this kind of book. I used the book not as a student, but as a teaching assistant for a college-level introductory physics course primarily for premed students. Physics without calculus is like balls without nuts, if you know what I mean. It's a kind of meaningless endeavor. I do think physics can be interesting without the knowledge of calculus, but the way everything is reduced to memorizing and plugging in numbers to a humongous number of formulae, I do not blame students for coming out hating physics after a year of suffering from Physics 101. The part of the difficulty students may face in learning physics out of a book like this arises from awkward explanations inevitably deriving from avoiding calculus. So if you have difficulties dealing with this book, try coming back after you take calculus. Things will be so much easier to understand with more fluent explanations. An excellent calculus-based intro physics text is Fundamental of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker. It is a shame because I find many students to be intellectually motivated in many ways, but when it comes to physics they only end up seeing it as a yet another stupid standardized exam that is MCAT. I think this kind of physics is indeed just an obstacle for students and should be reconsidered by those responsible for improving college curriculum.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good textbook
Review: As a physics teacher, I have chosen this physics textbook for my 10th-12th grade gifted students in my highschool. Rarely, the level goes little beyond my students, however with my support and additional work, they can easily get it. Although my students have English as a foreign language, they say they find the language of the book easy to read and study. From the physics teacher point of view, the book is very well structured. When I read some reviews about the book, which were so negative, I thought there might be two reasons for the case: One: the book is beyond their level, basically it does not fit them (so, they merely should not use it). Second: they have a low-quality physics teacher. Any textbook does not mean so much by itself... However, there are a few negative aspects of the book. Examples are very easy and not challenging. They do not provide enough experience/background for level 3 questions. Conceptual examples are not enough compared to the number of conceptual questions at the end of each chapter. Graphics are not studied enough in kinematics chapters.
Rating: 
Summary: could have more problems worked out step by step
Review: At the begining of this book it would be wonderful to have an introduction to the mathamatical procedures many students in college taking this class have had a summer or more away from the math required i am a A- student in advanced college alg & trig and the concepts are hard to grasp. NEEDS a Workbook to go with it.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre textbook at best
Review: Even though this textbook is now in its 5th edition, most users of the book will find it sorely lacking in many respects. First, the writing style is dry and sleep inducing. The sign of superior textbooks is that they anticpate the reader's questions and answers them right on the spot with a diagram or more explanations. Books that have this clairvoyant insight are the ones that are true gems. This book does not do that all. The author makes no attempt to infuse personality or interest into the material. It would have been more interesting if the author had inserted personal comments such as how to remember a formula(mnemonics), words of encouragement, cartoons, comics, MORE analogies, anything to diversify the presenation and keep me interested. Instead, he piles fact upon fact upon fact. Gee how captivating? Instead of lecturing to the reader, how about engaging the reader in dialogue? Reading you book is a relationship that's going to last a whole school year..why not make it fun? Second, I found the derivations of formulas to be very difficult to follow at times. I think it's because of the eye-straining font and the fact that the text is all in black print. Equations in the text shouldn't be boldened even blacker but set off in a different color and derived in one space instead of having words placed between them. Third, I got the impression that the author was writing the book more for physics professors than for novice students. In the front cover, the author brags about how over 150 college professors have thoroughly reviewed the book over the span of the five editions. Well, that's nice but it would have been way more beneficial if 150 *beginning* students had reviewed it instead of teachers. What's the point of giving a book for review to someone who has had already mastered the subject? Those who have mastery over a subject cannot remember the difficulties and frustrations when they were first learning the material. In fact, in his introduction, the author write a long intro on how teachers should use the book; excuse me, but your book is not written for teachers, but for students. The book is for FIRST time students, not teachers. Well since teachers determine which textbooks to adopt, the author had no choice but to cater to their demands. WRONG!! Fourth, the author leaves the reader hanging by not including the answers to the conceptual questions. I think even more important than solving numerical problems is understanding the conceptual questions. well it would have been nice to include the damn answers. Fifth, the text has this elitist attitude that seems to engulf it. For example, he suggests that the hardest problems, those he rated level III, should be "reserved for only the best students." Such a distinction does not serve to encourage hard work. I thought to myself, "Man I must be a bad student because I can't answer most of the level III problems. I've read the chapter several times, worked the beginning level I and II problems but I just can't answer these level III ones..ok the author wins..you've stumped me..there does that make you happy now?" His attitude should be more encouraging. Offer us hints or ideas instead of forcing us to reinvent the wheel. I know you don't want to spoon feed physics, but leaving me hanging and frustrated like a battered puppy won't do the trick. Sixth, the author offers *no* guidance as to which of the end of chapter problems should be mastered. Instead, he just throws a whole bunch of problems--in fact over 100 questions per chapter. Now these aren't easy questions. Most questions take about 2 to 3 minutes to answer. I want to know of these hundred of problems which I should concentrate my time to do my best on tests. Most students are using the book to prepare for AP exams and mcats. The author gloats that there are 3100 questions. Realistically, should I struggle through 3100 questions to get the essence of physics? Give me a break. Realize who your audience is for the book. Teachers will find it useful; your audience, the students, will not. In conclusion, I found this book to be boring, unhelpful, and tedious. The book basically hits you unmercifully over with facts until you doze off into sleep or throw the book against the wall in frustration. Physics teachers will enjoy reading this book; the rest of us will find it more useful to stay far, far away. And you know what, that's a shame because physics is interesting but this book does no justice to such a wonderful subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book, however..
Review: Giancoli's book is one of excellent value. The explanations are very clear and for those who like diagrams, it's full of them. This book is written for advanced physics beginners. You need to have at least two years of high school Algebra and trig. I am using this book in my IB physics class and my instructor is always praising it. Several examples are found within the text, however don't be fooled by them. The excercises at the end of the chapter are not for the faint-hearted and you've got to be really persistent (and like physics) to do them. Answers are provided for the odd excercies only. Otherwise, this is a truly excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book
Review: Hey look, I used this book as preparation for an oncoming university engineering programme and I must say it is brilliant. I am astounded that so many people do not appreciate the quality of this book. The explanations are clear, to the point (Giancoli does stray from this occasionally with his look back at history and so on) and then we are given good questions to help us THINK carefully about what we just learned. I'm sure if more of these readers studied this book harder instead of becoming frustrated at not understanding a topic at first go well then this speaks more about the student then the author. Physics is difficult, but not so if we get into the mindset of a physicist. This is obviously easier said then done but as with anything worth doing takes effort.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Text for Serious Physics Students
Review: I am a high school physics teacher with 20 years of experience. In this time span I have read and taught from over a dozen physics texts. Giancoli's text is the best written and most comprehensive textbook that I have encountered! I just wish I would have had such an interesting and well developed text to read when I was a student in introductory physics. I have used the text in standard physics courses, IBSL & IBHL courses and my students generally remark favorably about the style and level of difficulty of the text. Giancoli has tried to make the book assessible to less capable science students while retaining a challenging and comprehensive style for serious science students. His text, however, should not be used as an ancillary source for students struggling with physics.
Rating: 
Summary: this book is simply awful
Review: I am a physics major. Having to complete my first physics sequence (this whole book) using this textbook was no less than a nightmare. First of all, the reviewer from california is right; physics is a rigorous subject. But why do they bring up calc and trig? This is an ALGEBRA and trig-based course! And of course 2 teachers are going to like it. They understood the whole thing before they even had to open it! The book is cluttered with many useless diagrams that divert the attention of student while they are trying to understand the text. It is obvious the author knew that he could not convey ideas clearly, so he reverted to diagrams. I spent more time trying to understand these things than reading the text. (Having a poor teacher did not help things either by using his lecture hour to mimic what the book said.) It is as if the author overexplains- therefore cluttering -when it is not needed and he oversimplifies when something is difficult. And those problems! I remember it literally took me 7-8 hours to do my first set of assigned homework (which was only ten problems!). Additionally, since only the answers to the odd problems were given in the back, it was excrutiatingly difficult for me a lot of the times to really know if my answers were correct. Not to help matters, the odd problems before and after the evens were of no help to gauge my thought process in solving the even problems. Oh yes, the summaries were useless. The answers to the questions preceding the problems were not given either, and these were not always so obvious. Something else I should mention is the pace that the author recommends for the actual course in school: there are 32 chapters in this book and he expects the student to cover it in two semesters. Trust me, even in my best attempts I was either severely behind and/or was not retaining much of the material at all. I received two B's in the courses, but I do not remember much of it in any detail. All in all this textbook, not this highly fascinating subject, made physics much harder and more vague than it needs to be by far. My advice, suggest a textbook to your appropriate dean with more textual clarification and less useless kiddie diagrams.
Rating:
Summary: Students Review
Review: I am a senior pre-dental student, and my general physics course used this book. The chapters were set up well and the material was presented in a logical fashion. Summaries at the end of each chapter were helpful, and the accomanying web sit really increased the leaning opportunities. The only negative I found was in some of the Problems at the end of the chaptesr. There were few but some of the problems were quite hard to solve from only the reading of the text. Overall I would highly recommend this book though.
Rating:
Summary: Texts like this are why many people fear physics.
Review: I am a student at a university who has been forced to wade through this book, with little prior knowledge of the topic. The explanations for the theories and concepts are not incredible, but suffice. The problems, however, are torture. Simply having a couple of novice examples throughout the chapters, and then being thrown into the problems at the end with no help but for the ODD answers at the back of the text is not helpful, and not conducive to learning. Frustration is not a good method to get people to understand and/or enjoy a topic. I would not recommend this book for the novice, but can see how it can be used as a good reference book for those of more learning in the topic. A solutions manual really does need to exist, as that is how one learns this subject, through trial and error, and the answers in the back are simply not enough.
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