No comments about Biofluid Mechanics: The Human Circulation.

5 comments about Quantum Mechanics and Experience.

1. 
   This author appears on the cult promotional video What the Bleep, which was produced by the Ramtha people who believe that a woman is channeling a 35,000 year old cromagnon warrior.
   
   Alberts appears on the film, emphatically waving his hands and talking about physics, which seemed to suggest that somehow our thoughts can influence external reality and its outcome.
   
   How can you trust a man that then appears on such a cult film?
   
   Maybe Alberts was duped and his sayings were taken out of context. But then this speaks of a vainglorious man that was more concerned for getting his image and notions "out there" and seemingly not particular who was doing it or not checking what the film was really about. It would not be surprisig then how such a man can get fooled and have that vanity used against him.
   
   Either way, be careful, as this man seems too zanny to really know what he is talking about and plus his writing style in the book looks like some retarded monkey on crack was sitting in front of the typewritter.



2. A previous reviewer expressed her dismay that Professor Albert has appeared in a "cult promotional video" called "What the Bleep Do We Know". I recommend that those concerned or interested by this claim do a search in the Wikipedia for the title of the film, and then search within that page for the phrase "David Albert". Within the paragraph containing his name is a link to an article in the on-line edition of Popular Science Magazine which explains that Prof. Albert does *NOT* and did *NOT* support the views of the filmmakers: the statements he made in his interview for the film were edited and cut such that he appears to support their ideas, when he actually considers them to be nonsense.
   
   I have read this wonderful book by Prof. Albert. I give it four stars instead of five because of the writing style: while said style is occasionally refreshing, it can sometimes be a hindrance to the reader's understanding of the ideas presented by the good professor.
   
   Prof. Albert uses a combination of intuitive and interesting thought experiments, coupled with a conceptual abstraction from the QM math, to engage the reader in a profound exploration of the *consequences* of the quantum reality that seems to encompass the microscopic world (and indeed the universe as a whole).



3. This book is so horrifically flawed on so many levels. First, there is the erroneous uncritical thinking involved in dealing with the measurement problem, which despite David's attempt to address, is completely evaded via a multi-layered philosophical detours of an almost paramastabatory nature. Second, on a technical writing level, David is completely unable to formulate one complete, coherent, and logically cohesive sentence. His writing style is to riddled with repeated mistakes in basic grammar that it is genuinely embarrassing to read.
   
   I would greatly encourage those interested in real science to read The Fabric of the Cosmos or The Elegant Universe.
   
   -B. Greene



4. What the Bleep is NOT "cult" film, and I wonder if the person who used that term even knows what it means or watched the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know".
   
   Succinctly, "What the Bleep" is the greatest film ever made. The fact that Albert disagrees with the filmakers detracts from, and does not add to, his credibility.
   
   Anything that finally attempts to unravel the fabric of deceit and brainwashing that western organized religion has propogated onto the populace is a refreshing addition to our culture and should be required viewing for the entire race.
   
   Also, to the reviewer who mocked JZ Knight and Ramtha: JZ and Ramtha are the real thing. The channeling has been put through an endless battery of scientific tests in an attempt to debunk the phenomenon and the results proved just the opposite: what JZ is doing is real and cannot be explained away as hoax. While channelling, Ramtha/JZ's brainwaves are in DELTA WHILE SHE IS CONSCIOUS - which is scientifically impossible for a human being to do. No other human being has ever accomplished this, and the scientists were forced to conclude that Ramtha "is a non-local phenomenon".
   
   Anyone who viewed "What the Bleep" with skepticism or disdain is obviously one of the many who have been brainwashed by western religion to the point of being so closed minded that they cannot even recognize enlightenment and true knowledge when they see it. It is not "occult" - it is TRUTH backed by science and quantum mechanics. Period.
   
   Jonathan Meadows



5. This really is a wonderful book, directed at the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
   
   Albert's elucidation of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics is not only the essence of simplicity, but also accurate. A most unusual combination!
   
   Albert then examines the consequences of that formalism for non-locality, the EPR experiment, Bell's inequality, the problem of measurement and the collapse of the wave function in a laid-back but precise presentation. Some other reviews have criticized the prose, but I found the writing to be friendly, modest and (and here's the punchline) understandable.
   
   This is an elegant piece of work.

4 comments about Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability (International Series of Monographs on Physics (Oxford, England).).

1. I first read this book just to better understand a small point in a fluid dynamics paper I was reading, but quickly realized it is an encyclopaedic masterpiece, and found myself reading more and more. Chandasekhar's explanations are clear, easily readable, and complete, and should be a model for other writers. Anyone working on fluids should own this.



2. I first read this book just to better understand a small point in a fluid dynamics paper I was reading, but quickly realized it is an encyclopaedic masterpiece, and found myself reading more and more. Chandasekhar's explanations are clear, easily readable, and complete, and should be a model for other writers. Anyone working on fluids should own this.



3. This is one of the standard monographs on hydrodynamic instabilities, considered a classic. It was published by Oxford UP in 1961 and is kept in print (at a bargain price) by Dover. It is still very usable, easy to read, and an excellent introduction, although on some points it is out of date. For Rayleigh-Benard convection, a reader would do well to consult more recent books like Drazin & Reid, Swinney & Gollub, Koschmieder, and Getling. However, nobody covers the linear theory better than Chandrasekhar.



4. This is one of the classic books written by Chandrasekhar. This is
   extremely helpful for the people working on Hydrodynamic and
   Hydromagnetic Stability.

1 comments about Fundamental Mechanics of Fluids, Third Edition (Mechanical Engineering (Marcell Dekker)).

1. This book is perfect for a graduate level fluid mechanics text book. It covers both inviscid and viscous flow. Currie proves the equations with a great level of accuracy. This book is an ideal companion to study for a qualifying exam. This is probably the most thorough graduate level text on fluid mechanics. Currie takes the time to prove everything very accurately.

3 comments about Contact Mechanics.

1. I used this book for my course contact mechanics. My instructor and I loved this book a lot. Very organized presentation of the topics. Very much recommended for anyone doing research in contact mechanics.



2. This classic text is an indispensible resource for any engineer concerned with contact mechanics. It is very well-written and covers many phenomena. Some may find portions of the book to be too theoretical or mathematically based. However, the subject is inherently difficult. A watered-down presentation would probably not suffice. If your willing to do the work, the book will reward you with deep insight and understanding into its subject matter.



3. Excellent review of Hertzian and Non-Hertzian Contact problems. I highly recommend this book for those who are having their first contact with the subject. Grad students will find it useful and clear, but I'm not sure that undergrads will have an easy time handling the book, or the subject, for that matter.

5 comments about The Mathematics of Diffusion.

1. This book is a classic, collecting analytical solutions to common differential equations arising from common problems in mass transport.



2. This classic diffusion text continues where many other texts end, and covers a broad variety of problem types. This is an excellent resource for diffusion solutions for less-common boundary conditions and assumptions, including thorough mathematical developments of the solutions and many references to the original works. Non-mathematicians will often need to roll up their sleeves to digest portions of the derivations, but the insight into the solution processes is often very revealing. This makes this book an invaluable reference, although it is probably not well suited as your only book on diffusion.



3. This text is a great resource for understanding diffusion. It is accessible to your average scientist (my background is soil science), but you will have to do some work if your not a mathematician. Don't let that stop you though, this is THE text on diffusion maths. It's an invaluable tool.



4. This book does it all. Any problems you have Crank has got you. Don't read it without knowing transport though, he solves mad prolems but that's really it. No insight or anything like that. Who cares he does MAD problems



5. Crank's Mathematics of diffusion is a comprehensive summary of solutions to several diffusion related problems. The insights offered are clear and logical, mathematics is at a level that anyone with a college level understanding of calculus (and differential equations) can comprehend and appreciate. The book is particularly useful for researchers and experimentalists who wish to design measurements to understand diffusion behavior into pratically realizable substrates. Time dependent, concentration dependent and temperature dependent effects are included and non-Fickian behavior is discussed. Moving boundaries, sorption and problems involving diffusion in heterogeneous media are also described. Of course, the discussions are neither exhaustive nor recent results feature in the book, for which one must look on his own. This is more like a basic text, and must be used likewise.
   
   The book does not discuss mass transfer under convective flow conditions, and does not incorporate discussion of experimental methods used to measure concentration gradients. Yet it is an essential text to compare many observed concentration profiles to the known solutions plotted in the book. Mass Transfer by Hines and Maddox can be used as supplement for looking at chemical engineering type mass transfer problems. For anyone familiar with an excellent text by Carslaw and Jaegar on the Conduction of heat in solids, Crank's text provides a nice mapping of heat transfer problems discussed in that book to diffusion related problems. The mathematics of diffusion, once mastered, is useful in understanding similar problems in heat problems, momentum transport etc. For everyone involved in studies involving diffusion, Crank's treatise is a must have, must read book.

1 comments about Stress Waves in Solids (Dover Phoenix Editions).

1. H. Kolsky's short text, Stress Waves in Solids, offers a clear, in depth mathematical analysis of dilatational and distortional wave propagation in an extended elastic medium, Rayleigh waves on/near a free surface, and propagation in a bounded elastic medium (e.g., along a cylindrical bar). Part 2 is titled Stress Waves in Imperfectly Elastic Media; it focuses on experimental investigations of internal friction, dynamic elastic properties, plastic waves, shock waves, and fractures. First published in 1952, the discussion of empirical studies is now outdated, but Kolsky's style is quite readable, and Stress Waves in Solids provides a useful and interesting historical perspective on the laboratory study of elastic waves.
   
   However, what makes Kolsky's book notable, even exceptional, is the clarity of the mathematics describing wave propagation in an elastic medium. I am not unfamiliar with elastic wave theory, and the math, even the diagrams, seemed so familiar that I almost persuaded myself that I had indeed studied Kolsky's work some years ago. And yet, I could not actually recall reading this delightful book. The explanation was straight-forward. Kolsky's text has influenced so many subsequent authors that, in one way or another, I had indirectly already encountered much of his work. The Amazon product page identifies 60 sources that cite Stress Waves in Solids.
   
   As an example, on my own bookshelves I found Thomas R. Morgan's interesting Foundations of Wave Theory for Seismic Exploration. The early chapters are closely patterned on Kolsky's presentation. (Morgan does cite Kolsky's work.)
   
   Kolsky offers the reader an opportunity to skip much of the mathematics and go directly to page 84 for a brief summary, but the mathematics are so well laid out that it would be a shame to do so. The math is not without difficulty, and although Kolsky does not skip major points, he does expect the reader to fill in some gaps. (I nearly filled a notebook with my follow-along derivations.)
   
   Stress Waves in Solids has been available in a standard Dover edition since 1963. The font is larger than is often found in reprints, and I had no difficulty reading stress-strain subscripts or other small mathematical notations. More recently (2003), Stress Waves in Solids came available in hard cover as a Dover Phoenix Edition.

4 comments about Peterson's Stress Concentration Factors.

1. The definitive book of stress concentration factors...updated from Peterson's original edition. This is the ultimate source for aerospace engineers dealing with design and analysis. Other engineering disciplines should find it equally useful. The book is more compact, yet thicker than the original but the the figures are very clear and readable. Explanations appear much the same.



2. This is an excellent book. I found the book to be extremely informative and thoghtfully written. I recommend this book for anyone that is interested in applications of stress and strain analysis.



3. Absolutely essential book for anybody interested in stresses in notched bodies; structural analysts who like to use the 'back of the envelope', finite element analysts, fracture mechanicists; designers in aerospace, rail, heavy machinery, light machinery, medical devices, almost anything you can name. Book has been updated from the original; even if you have the original edition, this 2nd edition is well worth having for your engineering reference library.



4. I have access to Peterson's original book (older than me?) and to the first edition of this one, published in 1974. I recommend buying used copies of the old ones. They contain the same info and are easier to use since the charts are bigger.

5 comments about Principles of Dynamics (2nd Edition).

1. Don Greenwood's "Principles of Dynamics" is definitely NOT one for the faint at heart. Reason why many frustrated readers/students balk so much at it, bash it so furiously.

   What most readers -- especially students -- fail to realize is that the book, despite being in its second edition, retains a lot of the flavor of the first edition, written in the mid-sixties, using a language and references that most present-day computer-minded students really aren't prepared to appreciate...

   Actually, even -- especially -- from the conceptual standpoint, it is a very difficult book to read. Greenwood's long "text-only" expounding of many topics throughout the book are hard to follow. One really requires some getting used to it. As a matter of fact, the extensive derivations -- which naive students complain so fiercely about -- are indispensable, since, without those, one can have little hope of grasping the full content of the discussions.

   Unfortunately, regardless of its problem-solving approach, the book doesn't quite tell the reader "the whole story"... For instance, it does not teach how to address nonlinear dissipative effects via the Lagrange-equation formalism.

   Nevertheless, the author's assumption (see the Preface) that "students using this text will have the academic maturity of first-year graduate students or of well-prepared undergraduate seniors" is a little too optimistic, at best. The book is written at a level which requires a great deal of abstract reasoning, which is by no means a characteristic of today's students, who are far more into computer stuff than into reasoning. Some previous, solid academic experience is needed before one can start to benefit from the book in all earnest.

   Having taken several of Prof. Greenwood's courses, I still remember RATHER VIVIDLY how sore my first experience with the book was!... By and large, however, today, I must say, through being so precise, so accurately and scholarly written, it is proving one very valuable asset.




2. People who criticize this book are people that have not yet learned dynamics. Though this book is not easy, neither is the subject matter. This book gives it straight. It covers certain subjects rarely found in other intermediate textbooks, such as the correct analysis of nonrelativistic systems with variable mass, and nonholonomic systems. The homework problems are perhaps the best intermediate-level collection ever assembled.



3. This well respected book is average... The program I am studying renders some of the chapters useless... The book is vaugue and akward in some of the explanations.



4. The format and flow of the book is out-dated. Very hard to follow--because of the book...not the material.



5. The picture looks like its a hardback, but I got a paperback version. + its 23% on sale when it wasnt 2 weeks ago.

2 comments about Schaum's Outline of Beginning Physics I: Mechanics and Heat (Schaum's).

1. Amazon's preview of the book itself would be more useful if it complemented customer reviews. Yable of Contents always shows only one page when it may consist of two or several pages. The author's Preface and Introduction would tell what the scope and intent of the book would be. One random page, obtained by Surprise Me, shows a delta y over delta x. But is it a calculus-based book? I can't assume it is.



2. A previous reviewer gave this book a bad rating because she/he was not pleased with the preview pages offered at Amazon. Actually the preview pages are ok - it just happens that the author is dedicating the first chapter to brush up the students math. The book holds what the author promises in the preface: "The book is specifically designed to allow students with relatively weak mathematics and science problem solving to quickly gain the needed quantitative reasoning skills as well as confidence in addressing the subjects in physics"
   The book is designed to accompany first year college students. Price/Value ratio seems ok - and it blends in with the second part "Beginning Physics II" (which has received good ratings as well).