College Physics

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Easy to Understand
Review: For someone looking to get an overview of basic physics, this book is great. The problems in the back of each chapter start out easy then become more and more challenging. In several chapters there are photos of some physics instructors doing experiments we all want to do; one of the best is an experiment where someone is sitting in a chair holding a very large CO2 fire extinguisher and... rockets off! It does a very good job of explaining Newton's laws. (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) If you purchase this text, make sure to get the associated study guide. It not only provides a review of each chapter, it goes through step by step problem solving on slected odd numbered problems. The only caveat is that some of the wording is vague; there was an attempt to explain physics without calculus. As a result, some subjects must be taken on faith. If life sciences is your major then this text does a great job of explaining physics.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Easy to Understand
Review: One of this book's authors is a professor at my university. While he himself did not teach my physics class, he definitely conveyed our school's philosophy of "learn by doing" through the use of numerous pictures, diagrams, and straightforward exercises at the end of each chapter. I thought the book explains the general ideas and concepts of physics very well, without requiring a calculus background to understand the material.

Rating:
Summary: Best Algebra Based Physics Text
Review: Physics is a difficult subject. This text does an admirable job of making a difficult subject easier.

There are advantages and disadvantages to disallowing the writer to use calculus in writing the material. Some formulas require calculus to derive and so must be either taken on faith as true, or the derivations looked up in a calculus based test. Fortunately the times when this issue comes up are few enough to not seriously hamper the flow of the book.

This book may be read as a first book on Physics. I strongly recommend the book Conceptual Physics by Hewitt for a running start at the subject.

Members of the lay public interested in physics may read both of these texts, as they are at introductory level and contains material on classical as well as modern physics.

The units are in SI ( metric ) which simplifies the math.

The Wilson and Buffa text has Color photos of natural phenomenon and situations that illustrate the physics under discussion. There examples are intermixed throughout showing how to work problems involving the principles involved.

I believe this book is an important part of a well rounded education. Physics is NOT an easy topic. If it were, then Newton would have developed theories on relativity and gravity waves. This book does what it was designed to do, that is assist beginners in starting their journey.

I read the book. I found it to be fun.

Katherine Rogers
Yes, Real girls do physics.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, Not Great
Review: While I haven't had the pleasure of having Buffa for a professor (and by all accounts I'm planning on avoiding it), the book really isn't that bad. The sample problems are helpful and the escalating difficulty is appreaciated.

The downside is that he tends to get bogged down in little details that aren't really as important as he makes them out to be--especially considering that the book is for people who don't need calc-based Physics (read life science majors, and all non-science related majors who need a GE), and occasionally the problems seem totally unrelated to what has been presented in the text.

Still, as far as text books go, this one isn't bad and if you have a good teacher to go along, it'll serve you just fine.