Product Description

Now in its third edition, Mathematical Concepts in the Physical Sciences provides a comprehensive introduction to the areas of mathematical physics. It combines all the essential math concepts into one compact, clearly written reference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147867 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 864 pages

About the Author
Mary L. Boas is currently professor emeritus in the physics department at DePaul University.

Customer Reviews

This book was the bible of my degree
Quite the best undergraduate maths book I have read. Practically every question I had during my degree (physics) was answered in the book and I still refer to it now. Methodology is clear yet concise. The layout is very good starting with basic concepts such as series and linear algebra and moving on to differential equations and integration methods - plus a lot more. Helpful examples are given in each section. All in all a very useful book for every level of undergraduate, and for forgetful postgrads.

A physical scientists best friend.
This textbook supplies a comprehensive and clear introduction to the areas of mathematical physics encountered in university degree courses. It provides understanding, application of mathematical techniques and practice questions (and answers). Working through this book will lead to, in a short time, a basic competence in partial differentiation equations and integrals, through to calculus and vectors.

Some bits are good, some bits less good...
I'm a first year physics student. Boas is a text book which we were sort of forced to buy... it was one of the main course books.
I can't really say that I found everything useful here. Some chapters, like chapter 4 on Partial differentiation, can be very, very cryptic. Others, like the Fourier Series one, read like a paperback novel!
One thing I found this book very unhelpful for was the more advanced mathematical physics I had to do for the Mathematical Physics option, like Legendre polynomials and partial differential equations. The chapters were useful, but not on their own. I constantly had to refer to other books from the library to understand what the hell was going on, or to apply the stuff to problems that were slightly different.
While I appreciate that the subject is immense, and that it's probable that no single book can cover so much material in a way that is agreeable to everyone, I would have preferred a bit more practicality in some of the sections.

Given the extent of the material it covers, and how much you can actually learn from it if you also get a little bit of explanation from the tutors, this is an excellent book. If you have to study it alone with no help, however, you'll most definitely need other books as well.