Product Description

The new edition of this highly acclaimed textbook contains several major additions, including more than four hundred new exercises (with hints and answers). To match the mathematical preparation of current senior college and university entrants, the authors have included a preliminary chapter covering areas such as polynomial equations, trigonometric identities, coordinate geometry, partial fractions, binomial expansions, induction, and the proof of necessary and sufficient conditions. Elsewhere, matrix decompositions, nearly-singular matrices and non-square sets of linear equations are treated in detail. The presentation of probability has been reorganised and greatly extended, and includes all physically important distributions. New topics covered in a separate statistics chapter include estimator efficiency, distributions of samples, t- and F-tests for comparing means and variances, applications of the chi-squared distribution, and maximum likelihood and least-squares fitting. In other chapters the following topics have been added: linear recurrence relations, curvature, envelopes, curve-sketching, and more refined numerical methods.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #451050 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1256 pages

Review
From reviews of the first edition: ‘… the book provides scientists who need to use the tool of mathematics for practical purposes with a single, comprehensive book. I recommend this book not only to students in physics and engineering sciences, but also to students in other fields of natural sciences.’ P. Steward, Optik

From reviews of the first edition: ‘… suitable as a textbook for undergraduate use … this is a book that in view of its content and its modest softcover price, will find its way on to many bookshelves.’ Nigel Steele, The Times Higher Education Supplement

‘Riley et al. has clear, thorough and straightforward explanations of the subjects treated. It rigorously adopts a three-stage approach throughout the book: first a heuristic, intuitive introduction, then a formal treatment, and finally one or two examples. This consistent presentation, the layout, and the print quality make the book most attractive … clearness of presentation, comprehensiveness and value for money. It contains a thousand pages, there are plenty of exercises with each chapter, and … the layout and print quality are very good. J. M. Thijssen, European Journal of Physics

This is a valuable book with great potential use in present-day university physics courses. Furthermore, the book will be useful for graduate too, and researchers will find it useful for looking up material which they have forgotten since their undergraduate days.’ J. M. Thijssen, European Journal of Physics

About the Author
Ken Riley read Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and proceeded to a Ph.D. there in theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. He became a Research Associate in elementary particle physics at Brookhaven, and then, having taken up a lectureship at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, continued this research at the Rutherford Laboratory and Stanford; in particular he was involved in the experimental discovery of a number of the early baryonic resonances. As well as having been Senior Tutor at Clare College, where he has taught physics and mathematics for nearly forty years, he has served on many committees concerned with teaching and examining of these subjects at all levels of tertiary and undergraduate education. He is also one of the authors of 200 Puzzling Physics Problems.

Michael Hobson read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in theoretical physics, and remained at the Cavendish Laboratory to complete a Ph.D. in the physics of star-formation. As a Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and subsequently an Advanced Fellow of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, he developed an interest in cosmology, and in particular in the study of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. He was involved in the first detection of these fluctuations using a ground-based interferometer. He is currently a University Lecturer at the Cavendish Laboratory and his research interests include both theoretical and observational aspects of cosmology. He is also a Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall and enjoys an active role in the teaching of undergraduate physics and mathematics.

Stephen Bence obtained both his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences and his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Cambridge. He then became a Research Associate with a special interest in star-formation processes and the structure of star-forming regions. In particular his research has concentrated on the physics of jets and outflows from young stars. He has had considerable experience of teaching mathematics and physics to undergraduate and pre-university students.

Customer Reviews

best maths textbook for physicists
This book is simply the best. It is lightyears better than Boas (the most often suggested alternative), and it basically contains all the maths You'll ever need in all but the most theoretical undergraduate course of any natural science (well, except maths, if that's a science ;-) ).
In fact, now slowly finishing my PhD in physics, I think I can say that unless You are doing actual theoretical/mathematical physics, it probably contains all or most of the maths You'll need for the rest of Your life.

Comprehensive and accessible
A book that is designed to cover all the mathematics required for physics being studied at undergraduate level (at least first and second year). It does what it says on the cover. It is very comprehensive, however, reading it is not easy. The print is small, and the book is so large, that not only is it physically difficult, but you become depressed by the fact that no matter how fast you read or understand, it'll take a while to get through it!! Probably two years! Probably the only book you need for the maths involved in undergraduate physics, if only for reference.

Simply the best.Forget the rest.
This book is a watershed in the teaching of calculus and the essential mathematical methods required by undergraduate mathematicians, physicists and engineers.It will easily become the standard reference for methods courses , if it has not done so already.It starts right at the beginning with a refresher in basic calculus etc , and then proceeds to carefully develop multi-variable calculus, linear differential equations,complex variables, calculus of variations , tensors, representations, numerical analysis and prob&stats.What I really like about this book is the way general curvilinear coordinate transformations are explained at the end of the vector calculus section, to which you can refer when reading the chapter on tensors.I know of no other methods textbook which introduces tensors like this:many lesser texts (and that means all the rest) seem to feel that it is sufficient to teach people about raising indices, and give readers some vague hand-waving about coordinate transformations.This book is one to buy for this alone, as you will then have a firm grasp of why the tensor notation is like it is.Indeed, I would say that this book makes most other methods textbooks look the half-arsed disgrace that they are.Jacobians could be more carefully introduced, and the writing style can be a little Enid Blyton (phrases like 'one can consult the many excellent textbooks on such and such' can become rather monotonous), but apart from tiny niggles like this, this really is a truly comprehensive methods book, which really starts from the beginning and takes you well into the foothills of genuinely advanced techniques, and which you will keep through your professional life.An instant classic.