[.ca] Introduction to Thermal Physics, An (ISBN 0201380277)

an excellent demonstration of pigs in flight:
If you are fortunate enough not to be a physicist, you will toss this book away in frustration at the lack of proper derivations and explanations. If, however, you are fortunate enough to _be_ a physicist (or even an aspiring one), you will toss this book away in frustration at the flagrant absurdity to the textbook's approach. To put it another way, if you are the type of person who knows material without ever being taught it, _even then_ this book is not for you... for why would such a person need a textbook? Should you be in the unfortunate situation that your school requires you to use this text, be sure to frequent the index such that you may find necessary background information in the chapters ahead of what you are presently reading. Under no circumstance should you attempt the homework problems without doing so. This author provides no clear examples, no solutions, and I have found many problems which, to one who reads the book 'linearly,' cannot be solved without information from future problems and sections in the text.

Schroeder's better explaining Quantum Field Theory!:
Leafing through the first few pages, I had this feeling that I wouldn't like Scroeder's book at all (much like other textbooks we're prescribed at university). Put simply, this text is a to-be-avoided waste of money and time. Though I learned important themodynamical concepts from the book, I found it hard to bear Schroeder's attempt to render the book an informal, enjoyable read. Far from it, it gave me headaches all througout the semester, and was it not for some other text I managed to save money to purchase (Thermodynamics, Kinetic theory, and Statistical Thermodynamics, by Sears & Salinger), I don't think i would have survived the exam study period. The book by Sears & Salinger is comparatively much expensive but it's definitely worth the investment, since it manages to give clear, straightforward explanations of all principles, and also gives excellent exposes on the Fermi and Bose-Einstein statistics, which are more relevant to modern understandings of quantum thermal physics. Also, the questions set at the end of each chapter do not cover in full detail the material of each chapter, and the clear lack of examples is but a total disregard of pedagogical needs of students, who need examples to get a better understanding of concepts introduced to them. The omition of answers, as mentioned by other reviewers, is definitely a disadvantage

Great explanations; Enjoyable to read:
Schroeder sets the mark for readability with this undergraduate physics text. This was my favorite among all my undergraduate texts; by far the easiest to understand and most enjoyable to read. His explanations are clever and witty. I enjoyed his lucid introduction to combinatorics in statistical mechanics. Schroeder gets an A+ in defining abstract ideas such as enthalpy, partition functions, and intensive vs. extensive quantities. On the flip side, the organization is loose, and there aren't enough worked out examples in the latter chapters. I highly recommend this book to professors who want students to actually read and learn from the text.

Good Book and Online Support:
First, many of the answers to the text's problems can be found either online or are known implicitly! The problems themselves are kept interesting by relating to many fields and not being as dated (as another has mentioned, some computer/computational problems are offered--the author uses Excel but Mathematica, Maple, Origin, or other software is easily substituted) as other texts (especially in regard to Statistical Physics). The author gives links to good websites and references other solid texts for those wanting a more in depth or advanced discussion of a topic. The topics in the book are presented lucid and succinctly. An online errata is easily downloaded, though the corrigenda are not many. As mentioned, this text is very transportable. The author also notes that most of the layout for the book was done on his own computer thus keeping the price very reasonable compared to the bloated prices of texts Physics majors are accustomed. I think this text is very usable and well priced for a first year course in Thermal Physics. I also believe the author has put much thought in constructing this book to be used by students rather than to showoff his own knowledge or to be readable only to Physics Professors.

For Hardcore/Serious Physics Majors, Others Be Aware:
Although I have not used/read any other physics books dedicated exclusively to thermal physics, I can only assume that those out there have to be better than Schroeder's. The book is not "An Introduction," nor is it an advanced approach to thermal physics. Being so, it's an intermediate approach to the subject at hand. And that, is the problem with the book. Being a sophomores and non-physics major in physics, "getting use" the concepts and ideas in physics may take times. This means I need a clear and ordered outline of each subject in physics and assurance from my instructors and the books that I am using. However, with Schroeder's book, I'm thrown into chaos and frustration. First, the author chooses not to have practice problems or ones with answers in the back. This is horrible for an "intro" book. Sometimes I'm left with doubts about my answers and reasonings behind them: Am I taking this or that into account? Can I apply this equation to this system? Having some means of assuring the student with a budding interests in physics would be nice. Not everyone can make it office hours. His expanations are good, but this problems are horrible ( Mathematics is not the problem). Chapter 1 was supposed to be a review, but the problems are not. I had to use Tipler's "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" and an old physical chemistry book to get me through. The problems that are presented are either too easy (plug-n-chug) or too difficult, but slim on anything in between. The worst ones are the ones that ask you estimate or assume this or that. Yes, it's great for developing a habit to critical think, but often it is just one or two hours aimlessly of getting nowhere, all to find out the next day that the answer could be easily derived in just a few steps.