physics

To put it quite simply, if you are a physics student, you must own this book. What does this book do for you? Consider this...

In my school, we do not have a mathematical methods course for science, so I decided to take on a math minor to take all the classes neccesary to do physics "right." This included a class on ODEs, Fourier Series & PDEs, Linear Algebra, and Complex Variables. These classes, although helpful, cover a lot of stuff that is not quite useful for understanding physics concepts, often undermining or dampening the stuff that is actually applicable.

What makes this book so great is that it combines all the essential math concepts into one compact, clearly written reference. If I could do it all over again, I would easily rather take a two semester Math Methods course (like they do in many schools) using a book like Boas than take all these obtuse math courses. With this book, it makes it so handy to review previously learned concepts or actually learn poorly presented topics ( for a physicist anyway) in mathematics classes... (Things like Coordinate Transformations, Tensors, Special Functions & PDEs in spherical & cylindrical coordinates, Diagonilzation, the list goes on.....)

Keep this gem handy when doing homework and studying for exams, learning the math tools from this book enables you to concentrate squarely on the physics in your other textbooks... (since mathematical background information, understandably, is often cut short...)

It is not only well written, it has lots of worked examples! It is not as comprehensive as some "standards" such as Arfkin or Butkov, but it is much more useful for mastering the basics. No physics student should be without this book.

I'm a physics undergraduate. Out of all my books on math, this is far and away the most comprehensive and useful book! It has supplanted my other, thicker books and is the one thing I turn to whenever I need to refresh myself on a math method.

It covers practically every useful math technique for physics, and never assumes that you're a genius (unlike other books). Each step is explained in clear, refreshing language and in a very logical order. From Laplacian transforms to Fourier series to ODEs, each subject is introduced so well that, even when I've missed a lecture, I can understand the topic just from reading it.

Highly recommended and worth the price, this is one book physics undergraduates should have. The only thing else needed with it is the solutions manual.