Mathematics for Physics: A Guided Tour for Graduate Students

Warning: review based on first half of book.I used this book for a graduate level Mathematical Physics class where We worked through Chapters 1 through 9. I've skimmed a little through the rest which also looks good. So let me tell you it's strengths and weakness. The book is definitely intended for graduate physics students. Most of the examples are actual physics uses of the math you learned (and there a lot), because of this you probably need a solid undergrad background in physics at least classical mechanics, E&M and Quantum, as well as Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations (and more math exposure the better!).Strengths:1. It goes through a lot of math! In fact because of this it is useful as a reference book as well, the book is 800 pages. Covering a broad range of traditional mathematical physics and more modern methods(e.g. Differential Geometry, Groups, ect.)2. Lots of real world examples. This I think is probably it's biggest strength, and makes it worth the purchase, at least for me. The starts by explaining the mathematical concept, and then gives you worked out examples from physics. A lot of modern mathematics is extremely abstract, these examples help to get a feel for what the math actually says.3. The explanations are thorough. For the most part, the book does not gloss over topics. The rigor is what one would expect for a theoretical physics, not as rigorous a pure math course, but more rigorous then what is presented in physics courses.Weakness:1. Because the book covers a lot of material and gives so many worked out examples 'simple' steps in derivation are omitted. For the most part this is not a problem. It just means you have to spend more time on each page, perhaps with pencil and paper, but it does make it hard to casually read. (This probably better then the other option where every step is included, the book would have probably been 2000 pages)2. This is probably a statement about the material in general then about the book. The math is hard. It takes a lot of time and work on the part of the reader to really understand a lot of these concepts.Overall:As an aspiring theorist, I have a lot of math and physics books on the shelf(more like shelves). Its hard to say for sure but I see this as a book I can and will return to throughout my graduate school experience for help on understanding the math used in my courses. If your a senior in undergrad physics or somewhere in your graduate program this is a book that will return the investment. If you want a mathematical reference that is relevant to physicist this book is also for you. If you haven't taken that many math courses or don't have a solid physics background you might want to explore other books before diving into this one.

The book was made of good material, it arrived on time and in good shape. The pages weren't too transparent and none of the pages were blurry.That being said, I wouldn't necessarily give the content five stars. Some of the chapters were very elegantly done, and very fun to read through. Others were extremely dense and rushed. We're going to do group theory in one chapter? And then follow that with one chapter on Topology? Many of the subjects seemed to be flung out in the reader's face, and required pretty good knowledge of the material before it could be processed well. Definitely approach this with a heavy set of background knowledge and/or several good supplementary references. Still, the problems were intuitive, many of the chapters were well done, and the book serves nicely as a reference for other classes in the future.Still, don't think it's necessarily able to be taught in two semesters like the authors suggest. We had a small and very intelligent group of PhD students in the class, and we really worked hard to fit half the book into one semester.

i just got this ebook, but after that i find that so many function in this ebook are blindfold，the figure of function are so small, i can not clearly see what it is. So, please contact me as soon as possible， i want to return . Thanks

This was the required text for a graduate course I took in Mathematical Methods for Physicists. We covered material from chapters 1-6, 8, and 17-19 which deal with calculus of variations, function spaces, linear differential operators, ordinary and partial differential equations, Green's functions, special function theory, and topics from complex analysis. The book deals with many other topics, namely group theory and differential topology & calculus on manifolds, but these were not covered in the course I took.What are the strengths of this book? I suppose it would be useful if you have a *very strong* background in many of these topics already and just want another perspective. The topics covered are broad, and the applications that the authors have chosen to covered may be useful, depending on your area of interest.What are its weaknesses? Every time I had to reference this book to supplement my notes from class or to help with homework problems, I became frustrated very quickly. Too many steps are omitted in derivations to follow the logic of the authors, and on many occasions they give a partially worked example rather than the mathematical details required to make the concepts clear. I want a book for my reference library that I can pick up, page to the section that deals with the topic I'm interested in (like the book by Kreyzig: Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Textbook and Student Solutions Manual) and read a clear exposition of the mathematics, rather than having to slog through a vague, partially worked example from another area of physics and try to guess what the authors mean. After spending several hours trying to connect one line of a derivation with the next and ultimately failing on several occasions, I started looking elsewhere for textbooks. Let me mention as well that I am a fluid dynamicist by training; I'm certainly no stranger to long and messy derivations.In short, this book could be useful *supplement* to other applied mathematics texts in your library, but do not expect to be able to pick it up as a reference and obtain useful information in a timely manner.