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Thermal Physics (2nd Edition) |
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Thermal Physics (2nd Edition)
List Price:
Our Price: $125.75
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Manufacturer: W. H. Freeman
Author: Charles Kittel
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 1980-01-15
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
Label: W. H. Freeman
Number Of Pages: 496
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Editorial Review:
Cached date: AWS Called=true
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Terrible Cohesiveness  2008-04-07
In taking a second undergraduate course in thermodynamics, I had to suffer through this book on top of a terrible professor. The explanations are decent in and of themselves, but the book's cohesiveness (i.e. how it interlinks seemingly separate topics, as all physics texts should) is awful. For example, Ch. 8 on heat engines does not even attempt to make a connection with the simple systems exchanging heat or particles that were talked about previously. It just dives right in and leaves the reader guessing. Maybe this is obvious to Kittel and Kroemer, but the answer is certainly not obvious to me. Also, there are way too many applications that only serve to confuse the reader even more. The problems only serve as practice in mathematics.
A good physics text should be clear and mathematically rigourous but at the same time it should give much intuition. This book did nothing but confuse me.
Possibly the worst physics book ever  2007-12-09
This is quite possibly the worst physics book I have had to use during my entire undergraduate career (and it doesn't help that my professor is pretty bad also). I am on chapter 14 and I can safely say that I know nothing about statistical/thermal physics. Like many other reviewers have said, this book is simply an exercise in reading equations. Very few times does Kittel actually explain why or what he is doing. He doesn't group important information together and, even when there is an important equation, he doesn't highlight it in anyway (yet he'll make sure to outline a completely useless formula for some small principle). He goes through the math, but doesn't explain how he goes from one step to the next half the time. The problems, in addition to the bad text, did not help me understand what I read at all. It is simply a long chore of manipulating equations to get the one Kittel wants. If your school uses this book, I would suggest shopping around for some supplemental reading.
An old one  2007-05-15
Huge content. Good book with extra information but dont deal with it if you are not taking the assigned course.
Mediocre at best 2006-10-20
I can't really say I'm a fan of this book. A good physics book has at least 1 of these qualities:
1: Nice balance of mathematical formalism and explanation of the physics (this almost never happens)
2: Enough explanation of the physics to make up for a lack of formalism (any Griffiths text for example)
3: Enough mathematical formalism to make up for a lack of explanation of the physics.
This book doesn't have ANY of these qualities. The only clear part of the book is the Introduction. The rest of it seems fairly scatterbrained. I also don't know why people are raving so much about the problems in the book-- I found them to be more exercises in manipulating/integrating logarithms instead of really giving the reader/student any further insight into the theory. All in all I'd have to say I'm pretty pissed that Berkeley uses this book and that I was forced to deal with it.
The only reason I gave it three stars it seems to be okay for reviewing the material but if you're learning it the first time around it really lacks the detail necessary for a thorough understanding
Poorly manufactured book! 2006-05-04
I remember when I took this couse as an undergraduate it was very challenging to develop an "intuitive feel" for the subject material and the book seemed to make matters worse. Several years later and after a little mathematical "seasoning", I have revisited Kittel's Thermal Physics and now realize how well the material is presented. However, I am forced to give the book 3 stars because I remember how EVERY textbook in the class(~15 students) fell apart before the semester ended. I remember paying nearly $80 for the book at the time- totally unacceptable for a book in this price range. I was actually hoping to find an inexpensive used copy to replace my original, but after reading the reviews, it appears that the binding problem has not been corrected yet. So, I guess I'll have to tolerate keeping the pages intact as I thumb through the book.
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