The Physics of Astrophysics: Gas Dynamics, Volume II

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I was very dissapointed to see a rating on this book of only two little stars, so I've decided to express my opinion as well, for I believe this book deserves a much better qualification. The book gives an excellent overview in many of the most important aspects of the theory of gas dynamics as applied to astrophysics. The clarity with which the author expresses the underlying physical phenomena is amazing. You even find it "easy" the way in which fluid equations are deduced by taking the different momenta of the statistical distribution function of the fluid, or why a supersonic flow governed by a hyperbolic PDE is converted to a subsonic one governed by an elliptic PDE after passage through a shock wave in the stationary case. It's true that it doesn't go into too much detail; if it would, the book should have been at least of the size of the "Gravitation" (by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler) and it wouldn't easily fit anywhere. However, the references to excellent books on all the touched subjects have been meticulously selected and should be consulted by anyone interested in expanding the knowledge on any specific topic of the ones covered by the book. And for your curiosity, if you want to know whether Mr. Shu is a competent astrophysicist or not, just go to the Astronomical Data Service online and search for his name. You'll discover quite a big number of high quality papers on different subjects...

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I was very dissapointed to see a rating on this book of only two little stars, so I've decided to express my opinion as well, for I believe this book deserves a much better qualification. The book gives an excellent overview in many of the most important aspects of the theory of gas dynamics as applied to astrophysics. The clarity with which the author expresses the underlying physical phenomena is amazing. You even find it "easy" the way in which fluid equations are deduced by taking the different momenta of the statistical distribution function of the fluid, or why a supersonic flow governed by a hyperbolic PDE is converted to a subsonic one governed by an elliptic PDE after passage through a shock wave in the stationary case. It's true that it doesn't go into too much detail; if it would, the book should have been at least of the size of the "Gravitation" (by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler) and it wouldn't easily fit anywhere. However, the references to excellent books on all the touched subjects have been meticulously selected and should be consulted by anyone interested in expanding the knowledge on any specific topic of the ones covered by the book. And for your curiosity, if you want to know whether Mr. Shu is a competent astrophysicist or not, just go to the Astronomical Data Service online and search for his name. You'll discover quite a big number of high quality papers on different subjects...

Rating:
Summary: Not very good intro to subject
Review: When I had this book for a class in graduate school, I found that it never really helped me with any of the problems, and in general did not describe the topics well at all. I would recommend sticking to Rybicki and Lightman for a much better exposition.