Thermal Physics (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: I used to think this was a great book, and it certainly sparked my interest in statistical mechanics. But then I read genuinely good books on statistical mechanics, such as Landau and Lifschitz or Mayer, and realized how much I was missing. It's now hard for me to take seriously a book on statistical mechanics that never tells you what the Ergodic Theorem is, or says anything at all about classical methods of statistical mechanics -- which are still very relevant because of the difficulties of the pure quantum mechanical approach. It's also frustrating to try to look up anything here. As other reviewers have noted, the book is quite badly organized and topics that ought to be treated in one place, such as the ideal gas, are scattered over several chapters. The discussion of phase transitions is particularly bad. Such important topics as the connection between the microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensembles is never elucidated, and you won't see any discussion of such traditionally important topics as the cluster or virial expansions. I have to speculate that this is because the authors are solid state physicists who can't be bothered with an adequate treatment of real gases, liquids, or plasmas. The upshot is that I've come around from thinking this was a really great book to realizing that it's really pretty awful.

Rating:
Summary: Simple,honest,clear book about thermodynamics!
Review: This book in my opinion is the best book at the entry level for understanding thermodynamics.Basic concepts like entropy,chemical potential,perfect gas properties,black body and many others are developed here from scratch with a clear approach,emphasizing use of simple mathematical instruments and illustrations.While the point of view of this book is a little eccentric compared to other textbook competing in the same arena,authors have to be praised for their willingness to educate the reader in a realistic and effective way.Special attention is put to elucidate the very important subject of "equilibrium" a much abused but seldom explained concept in physics.As for problems i agree with other reviewers: they are totally out of sync with the excellent level of the book and they only add entropy to the student brain,but this apart this book is great:5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: cheap Tiwan copies
Review: This is a great book for the field but some companies get cheap foreign copies that WILL NOT LAST. I happened to buy one for the statistical mechanics class that I am in and the spine has broken and the pages are coming loose. MAKE SHURE YOU CHECK WITH THE SELLER TO SEE THAT IT IS TRUELY A US OR EUROPEAN COPY.