Related Subjects: Author Index
Book reviews for "Gaine,_Hugh" sorted by average review score:

University Physics
Published in Paperback by Pearson Education POD (1998)
Authors: James R. Gaines, William F. Palmer, Hugh D. Young, Julie Berrisford, and Freedman
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Confusing - I don't like this book
I'm using this book for my first college physics course. I find the text very dry and boring, and the problems at the end of each chapter are confusing and not well explained. For example, I'm doing my homework and one of the problems is "speculate on how gaseous diffusion works." Just that, does not explain what gaseous diffusion is. As with many of the problems in this book, the first thing that comes into my mind is "what the hell are you talking about??" Another question asks me to compare the length of something to "the diameter of a molecule." Huh? What molecule? Are all molecules the same diameter? And how the heck am I supposed to know what that diameter is? Gah. I do not recommend this book unless you like being confused.

Also, the discussion questions at the end of each chapter are very nice, but the answers are not provided anywhere. So how are you supposed to know if you answered them correctly? And another thing I really hate about this book, it will say "and why do you think this happens?" and then not tell you why. About 90% of the time my answer is "I have no clue why that happened." :/ This book makes me hate physics.

The perfect book for a general course
I've used both this book and Halliday's Extended 6th edition for my course on Physics. My conclusion, chapter after chapter, has been clear to me: this is the perfect book for a general course on Physics at university level. The language is simple to understand (Halliday too), the figures and tables are well done and useful (Halliday too), the content is thorough (Halliday: not so much !). Yes, this last is the striking thing: it's thorough and reaches a level of detail that is not a common feature for these kind of Physics books.
The problems set is well balanced both in content and number (an average of 85-90 for each chapter), and as usual odd-numbered problems' solutions are provided.
I've tried this book without anybody advising it to me, now I'm happy I've had it for the exam.

Easy to Understand
If I had to sum up this textbook in three words, it would be "easy to understand". The writing style is pretty informal when compared to most textbooks, but yet, this informality does NOT compromise on the depth of the explanations.

It is one of the main physics textbooks used for intro classes across the US, and though I've never read any other intro physics books besides this one, I'm not surprised to see on many university's intro physics courses web pages that THIS is the book that is used.

Unlike most textbooks that I've had to read, I can't really think of any complaints with this one. This doesn't mean that this book is perfect, but looking back, I really can't think of any major (or minor for that matter) problems I had with the book. I relied on this book instead of lectures to learn the material, so it isn't that I had a great physics teacher that helped me explain the material.


Hugh Gaine: a Colonial printer-editor's odyssey to loyalism
Published in Unknown Binding by Southern Illinois Univ Pr (Trd) ()
Author: Alfred Lawrence Lorenz
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The journals of Hugh Gaine, printer
Published in Unknown Binding by Arno ()
Author: Hugh Gaine
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Related Subjects: Author Index

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