Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful primer or review...
Review: This book manifests the proper perspective for both introducing students to physics and for refreshing those long out of college, or just anyone who wants to learn the essentials but does not have advanced math skills.In this textbook for introductory physics, the author takes a wise approach by presenting the essential nuts-&-bolts of physics concepts. The concepts and principles should always come before the actual applications, i.e., involving the "math". Mathematics is certainly vital in physics, but any science book (or study course) needs to establish a foundation before proceeding with complex (and often confusing) calculations. This publication has helped me immensely and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great physics book for understanding physics concepts
Review: This book was required text for my physics class in college. While it goes fairly light on the math, it does an excellent job making sure you understand the concepts and the "why?" of physics. A great book for someone who wants to understand physics but does not have a solid math background.
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs up!
Review: This textbook is easy to understand even for students who mathematically challenged. Unlike most physics books, this one is not math based. Teaches the concepts of physics including moden physics.
Rating: 
Summary: "Hand-waving" Physics
Review: Two years ago, my daughter took a high-school physics course based on this book. She is mathematically able and found the whole approach extremely frustrating. The fact is that much of modern mathematics -- differential calculus is a prime example -- was developed specifically so that physicists could articulate their ideas. The "conceptual" approach may be OK for pop-science TV shows, but it is worse that useless as an education for anyone who wants to pursue a career in engineering or science. Now entering 12th grade, my daughter is faced with a major catch-up exercise if she wants to get into a worthwhile engineering program at college. Her school doesn't offer AP Physics, largely because the "conceptual" approach they started out with doesn't adequately prepare students to move to AP level. So she is spending a big chunk of time this summer on a distance-learning course that actually presents physics as a mathematical science, which is what it is. Quite honestly, I think this book should be titled "Armchair Physics" or "Physics for People who Don't Really Care about Physics" -- it should certainly not be presented as a serious attempt to teach a scientific subject.
Rating:
Summary: "Hand-waving" Physics
Review: Two years ago, my daughter took a high-school physics course based on this book. She is mathematically able and found the whole approach extremely frustrating. The fact is that much of modern mathematics -- differential calculus is a prime example -- was developed specifically so that physicists could articulate their ideas. The "conceptual" approach may be OK for pop-science TV shows, but it is worse that useless as an education for anyone who wants to pursue a career in engineering or science. Now entering 12th grade, my daughter is faced with a major catch-up exercise if she wants to get into a worthwhile engineering program at college. Her school doesn't offer AP Physics, largely because the "conceptual" approach they started out with doesn't adequately prepare students to move to AP level. So she is spending a big chunk of time this summer on a distance-learning course that actually presents physics as a mathematical science, which is what it is. Quite honestly, I think this book should be titled "Armchair Physics" or "Physics for People who Don't Really Care about Physics" -- it should certainly not be presented as a serious attempt to teach a scientific subject.
Rating:
Summary: Fiziks
Review: We all know that Physics is a tough sport. But Paul Hewitt does a marvelous job describing complex issues in fairly easy to comprehend terms (not touching at all on calculations). This book also covers a wide spectrum of information about the world, from the intricate properties of electrons to color to Newton's laws of motion. I keep waiting for the price of this book to go down so I can buy it again to keep as a reference (I had used it with a college course previous). Worth having if you're one of those who loves reading about how things work. The accompanying workbook is nice, but only if you're going to be quizzed on this sort of stuff. Other than that, it isn't that great a deal.
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