Thread: Have any of you read any of the "... in a Nutshell" texts?

Have any of you read any of the textbooks from Princeton University which are the "...in a Nutshell" series? Such as Elementary Particle Physics in a Nutshell or Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell? They're a really wonderful set of textbooks and I highly recommend them.

In reply to Physicist, re: your #1 post.

Are then any "chapter lists" or some extracts on the 'net available free? I just don't have access to enough cash to satisfy my lust for books and more books!!! Not to mention the

nearest bookstore is 60 miles from me!

Gerry, you should be able to buy them off the internet and have them delivered. You might even be able to get reasonably priced second hand ones. I do this as I don't like shopping!

Originally Posted by Gerry Nightingale

In reply to Physicist, re: your #1 post.

Are then any "chapter lists" or some extracts on the 'net available free? I just don't have access to enough cash to satisfy my lust for books and more books!!! Not to mention the

nearest bookstore is 60 miles from me!

You can see the chapter lists at Amazon. You can download most of the texts at Electronic library. Download books free. Finding books which are in PDF format.

Try this first - Browse Princeton Catalog in In a Nutshell

Suppose you're interested in quantum mechanics. Then click on the icon for quantum mechanics. You'll get this page Mahan, G.D.: Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell (eBook and Hardcover).

In that page it will say "Table of Contents" and if you click it you'll see everything in the book. Click on Chapter 1[PDF] and you'll get chapter one. Or just click this

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8965.pdf

There's even a text on string theory there. You can download the first and ninth chapters. Let me know what you think.

Originally Posted by Jilan

Gerry, you should be able to buy them off the internet and have them delivered. You might even be able to get reasonably priced second hand ones. I do this as I don't like shopping!

I don't know Gerry's knowledge level, i.e. where he is in math and physics. These textbooks are for the upper seniors or graduate level. I bought several of them and downloaded and bound two of them. Try downloading Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell and reading the first chapter. See if you can understand it.

In reply to Physicist, re: your #5 post.

I can "muddle thru" math if I forced to w/ flails & hot irons! In theory...no problemo. (you must remember I have reading this stuff since 6th. grade, "P"...and when I was in 6th., I still had to

iron my school clothes! No "permanent press" then...I still remember my first "real" physics book "The Theory of X-ray and Radium Physics" from about 1920 or so that I found at a yard-sale

for a dime! I was 11 and thought the "atom" symbol on the cover was "cool". Of course, I was also looking for "Playboy" as well, but no luck...guys collected them even then)


Thanks for the "links!" I will check them out asap.


(Thanks for reading!)

In reply to Physicist, re: your #5 post.

I have been reading the "Princeton" links...very nice stuff and informative! Good "refresher" material. (are you serious that these pages are considered "graduate" material in a classroom

environment!?!? At Princeton? I was thinking more in terms of "if this doesn't scare you off...maybe you're smart enough to take this course and pass!") Do they really consider this

"hard stuff" at such a level as "graduate?" I think you're ribbing me!) Trust me...memorizing the "Merck Manual of Diagnostics" makes the Princeton papers look like "Fun with Dick and Jane"

in terms of staggering amounts of complex interwoven "signs and symptoms". Not knocking anything, but emergency medicine does NOT allow for "trial & error" or "fix the mistake".

(this is what my formal studies were)


(Thanks for reading!)

Originally Posted by Gerry Nightingale

In reply to Physicist, re: your #5 post.

I have been reading the "Princeton" links...very nice stuff and informative! Good "refresher" material. (are you serious that these pages are considered "graduate" material in a classroom

environment!?!?

I didn't say that because only graduate students are "smart enough." Only that graduate students have the necessary background for most of those subjects. Take the EM text as an example. That's at a level on par with what I used in graduate school EM, i.e. Jackson's text. The QM text can be used as an undergrad text but when you get to particle physics, nuclear physics, quantum field theory and string theory you're not an undergraduate anymore.

In reply to Physicist, re: your #8 post.

Sorry...my fault! I misinterpreted your meanings. You are correct, I should read everything in the series first, which I don't have, before I open my "smarty-pants" mouth and make a

foolish comment regarding complexity.


(Thanks for reading!)

Originally Posted by Gerry Nightingale

In reply to Physicist, re: your #8 post.

Sorry...my fault! I misinterpreted your meanings. You are correct, I should read everything in the series first, which I don't have, before I open my "smarty-pants" mouth and make a

foolish comment regarding complexity.


(Thanks for reading!)

Thanks, buddy!