Editorial Review:
Suitable for both undergraduates and graduates, this textbook provides an up-to-date, accessible introduction to thermal physics. The material provides a comprehensive understanding of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory, and has been extensively tested in the classroom by the author who is an experienced teacher. This book begins with a clear review of fundamental ideas and goes on to construct a conceptual foundation of four linked elements: entropy and the Second Law, the canonical probability distribution, the partition function, and the chemical potential. This foundation is used throughout the book to help explain new topics and exciting recent developments such as Bose-Einstein condensation and critical phenomena. The highlighting of key equations, summaries of essential ideas, and an extensive set of problems of varying degrees of difficulty will allow readers to fully grasp both the basic and current aspects of the subject. A solutions manual is available for instructors. This book is an invaluable textbook for students in physics and astronomy.
Cached date: AWS Called=true
You may also be interested in these products:
These categories may also be of interest to you:
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Disappointing  2004-08-05
This textbook on applied statistical mechanics is intended for use by advanced undergraduates in physics and astronomy. The first five chapters (plus chapter 7) are a gloss of basic thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The rest of the book applies statistical mechanics to various topics: photons and phonons, fermions and bosons, chemical equilibrium, phase equilbrium, etc.
The book presumes a familiarity with thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics. Because the author presumes a familiarity with many of the concepts that he considers, he sometimes introduces terms and even variables without defining them. What's more objectionable is that throughout the book the author reasons by "handwaving" arguments instead of rigorous logic; that is, he argues that his results are plausible but he doesn't prove them. Although the book is intended for astronomy majors, there is almost no mention of astronomical topics in either the text or the problems. Furthermore, some chapters offer few references for further study. There are better texts on statistical mechanics.
Excellent undergraduate text, horrid graduate text! 2002-11-28
While a nice, non-intimidating introduction to the field with an emphasis on physical insight and "back of the envelope" reasoning, it is NOT suitable as a graduate level text for statistical & thermal physics, contrary to what is stated on the back cover. I would say that if one were to use this and Reif as a combo as an undergraduate, one would get a good picture of the field from both a classic and a well done modern presentation. For graduate studies, by all means look elsewhere. McQuarrie, Kubo, Huang (if need be), heck, digging up the Dover reprints by Hill and Wannier wouldn't be such a bad idea, really.
A brilliant introduction to thermal physics  2002-08-12
This is by far and away the best book on introductory thermal physics I've read. It is written in plain and clear English and the development of concepts and the required mathematical framework is language-based rather than formula-driven. The first three chapters give a beautifully concise overview of the basic concepts of first-year thermodynamics, with a very clear introduction of the concept of entropy. The highlight of the book is perhaps the development of the chemical potential and the Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies.
Best Introduction to Thermal Physics 2000-05-17
Baierlein gives a great introduction to thermal physics. He emphasizes the how and why and writes in english, i.e. this book is not a collection of formulas. He does a very good job of explaning statistical mechanics, providing insiteful discussions of the Maxwell-Boltzman, Einstein-Bose, Fermi, and canonical distributions. Great description of the chemical potential. Easy to understand discussion of entropy and multiplicity and also of the partial and exact differentials used in thermal physics. IMHO, it is the best introduction to the topic available. A similar book, but not as well written is "Thermal Physics" by Kittel and Kroemer. Of course if you are looking for a reference on Statistical Mechanics, chock full of mathematics, try Reif, Reichl, or Landau.
There are better books  2000-05-16
Baierlein is chatty and presents the material in a friendly manner, however too often the material is simply glossed over and the results presented in a purely qualitative manner. In particular, his development of the early quantum theory has gaps in it, or rather, it is presented in a convoluted manner that does more harm than good. Also, the last chapter, on critical phemonena covers a difficult subject in a totally unacceptable manner.
|
|
