Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete
Review: I had this book for Modern Physics and after two semesters with it, I can tell you this book makes the class much harder than necessary. I was beginning to think I was an idiot, but I scraped up enough money to buy the Eisberg book from Amazon and as soon as I got it, it was readily apparent that the Serway book was incomplete, leaving out necessary concepts and leaving it to the student to fill in some big holes.
The Eisberg book and the Serway book are complete opposites; Eisberg giving you more information than you need and the Serway book glossing over what you need to know. With these two choices, I'll take (and did take) too much information any day. If your professor uses this book, do yourself a favor and look for help elsewhere, unless you're one of those people who can read Cliff Notes and wing it, because with the Serway book, that's exactly what you'll be doing.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: I had this book for Modern Physics and after two semesters with it, I can tell you this book makes the class much harder than necessary. I was beginning to think I was an idiot, but I scraped up enough money to buy the Eisberg book from Amazon and as soon as I got it, it was readily apparent that the Serway book was incomplete, leaving out necessary concepts and leaving it to the student to fill in some big holes.
The Eisberg book and the Serway book are complete opposites; Eisberg giving you more information than you need and the Serway book glossing over what you need to know. With these two choices, I'll take (and did take) too much information any day. If your professor uses this book, do yourself a favor and look for help elsewhere, unless you're one of those people who can read Cliff Notes and wing it, because with the Serway book, that's exactly what you'll be doing.
Rating: 
Summary: Has room for improvement, but a good book
Review: I used this text for two semesters. I am an A student and learn most of the material for my classes from my books, so their qualitiy is important to me. I found that overall that book did a solid job of covering special relativity and introducing quantum mechanics/wave particle theory(I have to admit I did not read all of the material on quantum mechanics.) I dislike several things about the text. First, it is a text intended for early stage physics majors, and in being so, I thought that it all too often skipped mathematical derivations, saying"it is left to the reader to confirm," or similar. I feel that such methods severely hinder the flow of the text. They cause readers to either skip ahead or stop and plug through the math. Secondly, the chapter introducing the basic ideas behind statistical mechanics is horribly written. I have since taken a senior level stat mech course and understood the material fairly well. However, I still don't think that Serway's chapter on stat mech is an easy read. To reiterate, the two stat mech chapters are horrible, but the rest of the book is fairly good.
Rating: 
Summary: Another must have!
Review: It is true that this book has its weak points, but I have taken a modern physics course using this book, and I was enlightened and fascinated with the material this book is composed of. In fact, this book was an invaluable reference for a later course I took in physics, so it is surely a must have for reference. If you're a student preparing to continue with physics, this is a must have book. It'll help send you on your way.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating most times,and a few times OK
Review: Over all I have to say I was rather displeased with this book. During the first few chapters the material is explained rather well, however the authors do not show a lot of derivations for the formulas. I felt the reading material in the later chapters often times did not prepare the reader for the homework problems assigned at the end of the chapters. Too many times there were variables introduced in equations with the assumption that the reader will be able to derive them in order to compute the answers without any explanation from the authors on how to do so. Every now and then I was pleasantly surprised with a thorough and approachable overview of some of the theories. However, most times the authors simply left out a great deal of theory and taught the reader how to "plug and chug" for an EXREMELY simple problem,then gave no examples for problems similar to the complicated ones at the end of the chapter. Though there were some good qualities in the book, I found those qualities to be inconsistent. I would instead recommend Tipler's Modern Physics. His "Introductory to Modern Physics" is a VERY GOOD basic introduction to this subject. He also has a text book for Modern Physics on the same collegiate level as this one that I personally prefer.
Rating:
Summary: Complicated
Review: This book assumes you've had more physics in the past then perhaps you have. The examples in the book skip major steps and assume that you can follow. It focuses way too much on the people who came up with the theories than on the theories and mathematics themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Complicated
Review: This book assumes you've had more physics in the past then perhaps you have. The examples in the book skip major steps and assume that you can follow. It focuses way too much on the people who came up with the theories than on the theories and mathematics themselves.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've ever read
Review: This book opened my eyes to the beauty of math and physics. The least I can do is give it 5 stars. It's been years since I first opened it. I had just moved to a place of my own and my Dad called to say my grandpa had died. I needed something to do and started reading. It was the first time I really paid attention to derivations and I found comfort in them. I'm not smart. Before reading this book I was a C student, but I got an A+ in this class.
Rating:
Summary: horrible
Review: This is a good introductory book on modern physics for any serious physics student who has already completed the first year GHW text. This book covers such concepts as Brownian Motion, Blackbody Radiation, the Photoelectric Effect, various early and later atomic theories, the Compton Effect, Special Relativity, as well as a few other things. First year calculus and differential equations, as well as a patient instructor, are suggested prerequisites for this text.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate in some ways, dreadful in others
Review: This Modern Physics textbook has a bit of an identity crisis. One the one hand, you have a complete textbook, covering the basics of modern physics ideas such as: Special Relativity and Introductory Quantum Theory, plus chapters on the various specializations in physics, such as nuclear physics, particle physics, Statistical Mechanics, Condensed Matter, etc. On the other hand, this textbook is terribly boring! It is a wonder to me how authors can make some of the most exciting subject matter in the scientific world seem so drab and benign. Part of the problem is the lack of depth in some of the chapters, another is just a very dry writing style. The exercises are okay, though can be a bit on the easy side. As a reference, it is fairly complete and useful for looking up important facts and equations. It can be integrated well within a modern physics course sequence. The examples are clear and decent as well... however, its bundled "Physics visualization software" does not even work in windows, and is completely useless anyway... (To imagine... it only works on old DOS based machines!) Although not a terrible book by any means, it is pretty unspectacular. I would reccomend Tipler's Modern Physics book, although a bit more difficult, it definitely the better book.
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