COLLEGE PHYSICS

(Third Edition). By

Francis W. Sears and Mark W. Zemansky.Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley PublishingCo., 1960. 1024 pp. $9.75.

When two outstanding teachers of physics combine their talents to write a textbook for introductory physics the result is almost unbeatable. College Physics by Francis Weston Sears of Dartmouth College and Mark Waldo Zemansky of the City College of New York, in its first and second editions, has become the norm against which other textbooks are compared. It is the prime competitor in the field, and it has been translated into several foreign languages. This new edition with added material, new diagrams, and reorganized chapters and problems is an improvement over the earlier ones. In it the emphasis is on physical principles; historical background and practical applications have been given a place of secondary importance. Anyone who has listened to lectures by either of the authors can attest to his lucid explanations of physical phenomena and above all to his insistence on a clear understanding of the physical principles involved. Their textbook incorporates these features.

Traditionally introductory physics is divided into mechanics, heat, sound, electricity and magnetism, light, and atomic physics. All but atomic physics were brought together for the first time a little over 100 years ago by Ganot in his Elements de Physique. This famous treatise was translated by Atkinson of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, England, in 1863 and survived through many editions into the twentieth century. CollegePhysics is one of its most recent successors. In comparing these textbooks one is struck not only with the growth that has taken place in physics but also with the changes in emphasis and methods of presentation of the subject matter. Sears and Zemansky devote more space to mechanics and less to heat; more to light and less to sound; more to electrodynamics and less to electrostatics. In addition, their book contains the elements of atomic and nuclear physics, electronics, and other topics in twentieth century physics.

Perhaps the most striking difference between Ganot and Sears and Zemansky is found in the quantitative treatment of topics in physics. During the last hundred years textbooks in elementary physics have become less descriptive and more analytical. Even so, College Physics "consists exclusively of material suitable for students whose mathematical preparation goes no further than algebra and the elements of trigonometry."

At less than a penny per page, the new College Physics by Sears and Zemansky is an invaluable source of fundamental physics.