Rating: 
Summary: This book is pathetic
Review: I am taking college physics as well as my second semester of general chemistry. This book in no way compares to my chemistry text. I am a very good college student with a BS in computer science and a strong physics background,... and even for me this book is extremely hard to follow. That is the consensus among my fellow students which include a friend who already has his MBA. There is not much explanation of concepts before you jump into the problems, and there are not nearly enough example problems worked in the text. Additionally, considering this is the 6th edition I am surprised to still find errors in the text.Don't even consider purchasing the student solution manual. I think it works out about 15 of the end of chapter problems per chapter, which is not very many.
Rating:
Summary: Not in my worst nightmares...
Review: I have hated textbooks before, but this one takes the cake. It is quite possibly the worst one that my professor could have chosen. The authors use such a wild mixture of mind-numbingly simple content and obscure, abstract concepts that the picture that they paint is, to put it bluntly, incoherent. They dance around the definition of vocabulary words, always coming close to defining stuff (but never actually coming out and *saying it*), contradict themselves repeatedly, and assume that the reader understands half the concepts before they are even introduced. Perhaps the most irritating thing about this text is the fact that there is *no* glossary to speak of--if the reader doesn't understand the sketchy definition in the chapter or chapter summary, too bad, because that's all you get! Steer clear of this book, if at all possible.
Rating: 
Summary: A High School Student's Perspective
Review: I used this book for physics my sophomore year, and I have mixed feelings regarding the book. On one hand, the text does not clearly and concisely explain concepts, but on the other hand, the end-of-chapter summaries and the practice problems were great preparation for tests. I doubt you will find more difficult problems than those this author gives, and your teacher would have to be a sadist to test you with problems harder than these. As another reviewer stated, you must couple this book with the lessons of a teacher - it would be very difficult to attain a firm grasp of the concepts based on this book alone. But if you're looking for concise lists of equations and challenging applications, this book will serve you well.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book - But Only a Gateway to the Field
Review: I will keep my review short and pointed. It is difficult for people to design books for students. I was a professor so I know the subject and sometimes it is a challenge to prepare and transfer the information in an easy way to the student. That is the challenge. About the book. It is an excellent book, with lots of information and covers all the basic topics of interest. If you can absorb everything in this book you will have a solid physics foundation of knowledge. It is a modern book and tries to relate physics concepts to the real world and modern laboratory so there is lots of extra information and tables, conversions, units, etc. Lots of formulas and a good cross reference index and it is all clear to myself. As a student you will never learn from just the book. You must read the book, but it is absolutely critical that you do every problem that you can find from assignments, to what is available in this book, to other books. Problems, problems, problems. Then you will absorb all that is in the book. The field is not intuitively obvious and there is no shortcut to study and problem solving.
Rating: 
Summary: Many better choices
Review: My daughter is taking high school AP physics with this book. As a former teaching assistant in physics (grad school), this book is terrible in that the chapters give little insight to the information needed to work the problems. Without significant, and excellent, supplement by the teacher this book should not be used.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a blunder
Review: My physics professor's infinite wisdom faltered when he decided to use this text for our college-level class. It lacks adequate explanations of commonplace physics concepts that are essential to the understanding of the subject. The fact that it doesn't even define new vocabulary words within the text (as well as the absence of a glossary) make it a virtually useless textbook. Its only strength is the variety of colorful illustrations that keep the reader mildly amused between the pages of its nonsensical text. If I had the gradebook, I'd give it a D-minus!
Rating:
Summary: Really good text!
Review: This book totally failed to explain the concept of torque to me, I spent one hour reading the torque chapter twice and it failed to show me. Then I asked my friend online and he was able to explain it to me in less than a minute. This book is only good for the problem sets, which occasionally have a cameo from a Warner Brothers cartoon and one picture of Raymond Serway on a bed of nails. You will not be able to teach yourself physics concepts if you use this book, so if your professor assigns it, I recommend you go to class. Maybe that's why he or she assigned it in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: less than one star... but since there's no zero
Review: This is one of the poorest books I've ever used for learning any subject. This is simply NOT GOING TO WORK if you learn by reading/studying, rather than in class. I already have a college degree, and I've read thousands of books, and studied from many. Rarely have I found a book this thick that has so little
1) EXPLANATION OF CORE CONCEPTS,
or
2) THOROUGHLY WORKED EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS. There is a lot of verbiage but that is all. DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH THIS BOOK. Without a GOOD teacher, this book is beyond totally useless. With a teacher one can use this book for homework problems, but nothing more. Since I am doing this as a pre-requisite for medical school, I am using the web and a number of other texts instead. I wish I could find a good thorough text though.
Rating:
Summary: less than one star... but since there's no zero
Review: This is one of the poorest books I've ever used for learning any subject. This is simply NOT GOING TO WORK if you learn by reading/studying, rather than in class. I already have a college degree, and I've read thousands of books, and studied from many. Rarely have I found a book this thick that has so little
1) EXPLANATION OF CORE CONCEPTS,
or
2) THOROUGHLY WORKED EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS. There is a lot of verbiage but that is all. DO NOT WASTE TIME WITH THIS BOOK. Without a GOOD teacher, this book is beyond totally useless. With a teacher one can use this book for homework problems, but nothing more. Since I am doing this as a pre-requisite for medical school, I am using the web and a number of other texts instead. I wish I could find a good thorough text though.
Rating:
Summary: College Physics, Serway & Faughn
Review: This is one of the very best books out there for covering general, non-calculus, physics. It is generally used in connection with a General Physics class as the class text. As such it should add to and provide clarification of concepts presented in class (suggesting that students should attend class). This is accomplished very well. The problem sets are excellent and the explanations are accurate and concise. This book is the standard by which many of us judge other physics books.
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