Schaum's Outline of Mathematics for Physics Students

This review moves along. fast and furiously. Takes you into the math of science rapidly and thoroughly.

A very good reference book. Great examples and well explained.

First, please note that I am giving this five stars because Schaum's is first rate, they are miles ahead of everyone in this category of books. I have not seen THIS book, only the other eighteen or nineteen volumes of Schaum's I own. It seems that McGraw-Hill has dropped the ball big time. Amazon needs to clean up this particular item and how it's listed. In 2007 the published a 1st edition "Schaum's Outline of Mathematics for Physics Students". In 2011 they RE-published another 1st edition with exactly the same title, and the same authors. It is in fact two different books, with exactly the same title, and exactly the same authors. Is the 2011 edition any good? No one has reviewed IT yet. The only reviews were written in 2007. Be sure to check the covers & copyright dates. That's the best way to tell the difference.

This book is a pretty good review of undergraduate college mathematics through differential equations. It stays on a pretty elementary level. Two-thirds of the book is dedicated to precalculus topics and calculus involving single variable functions. The last section of the book squeezes multi-variable calculus, differential equations, and even vector calculus into just a few chapters. The problems are unique - they are pretty useful at showing how you use the various types of math reviewed to work some physics problems. However, if you are looking for a more advanced math tutorial aimed at physics students I suggest "The Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics" by Byron. That book includes discussions and problems on the theory of vector spaces, analytic function theory, Green's function method of solving ODE's and PDE's, and the theory of groups. Plus the price is low at between ten and twenty dollars depending on whether you get it used or new, making it comparable in price to this book. However, if you feel you are not up to conquering Byron's book, this outline would be an excellent warm-up for it. The following is the table of contents for this Schaum's outline, since at the time I am writing this the contents are not yet shown. Part I: Algebra and Geometry Chapter 1: Introduction to Algebra Chapter 2: Functions Chapter 3: Graphs of Functions Chapter 4: Linear Equations Chapter 5: Simultaneous Linear Equations Chapter 6: Quadratic Functions and Equations Chapter 7: Inequalities Chapter 8: The Locus of an Equation Chapter 9: The Straight Line Chapter 10: Families of Straight Lines Chapter 11: The Circle Part II: Pre-Calculus and Elementary Calculus Chapter 12: Rational and Polynomial Functions Chapter 13: Trigonometric Functions Chapter 14: Exponential and Logarithmic Functions Chapter 15: Complex Numbers Chapter 16: The Calculus of Single-Variable Functions: A Mathematical Approach Chapter 17: The Calculus of Single-Variable Functions: A Physics Approach Chapter 18: Vectors Part III: Advanced Topics in Mathematics Chapter 19: Polar, Spherical, and Cylindrical Coordinate Systems Chapter 20: Multivariate Calculus Chapter 21: Elementary Linear Algebra Chapter 22: Vector Calculus: Grad, Div, and Curl Chapter 23: Vector Calculus: Flux and Gauss' Law Chapter 24: Differential Equations Chapter 25: Elementary Probability Chapter 26: Infinite Series APPENDIX A: RECTANGULAR COORDINATES IN SPACE APPENDIX B: UNITS AND DIMENSIONS APPENDIX C: SOLVING PHYSICS PROBLEMS APPENDIX D: SELECTED PHYSICS FORMULAS APPENDIX E: SELECTED PHYSICAL CONSTANTS APPENDIX F: INTEGRATION BY PARTS APPENDIX G: THE GREEK ALPHABET AND PREFIXES

This may or may not be an OK book. It certainly didn't cost much. BUT if any of you are Physics majors, this is not the book you want for a Math Methods course! The book starts with a basic review of Algebra I then goes into a very watered-down Trigonometry review and then finally touches on the "Advanced Topics in Mathematics" part - but only includes the ever-so-short intro. to linear algebra, almost nothing on differential equations or sequences and series, and the probability is middle-school level. I am so disappointed because I saw "Polar, spherical, and cylindrical coordinates" and really thought it would be the book to help me study for my Math Methods course! However, I can see this book maybe being useful if you are taking algebra-based physics for the first time and want to brush up on your math skills a little bit.

I'm a freshman collage student who has returned to school after nearly 20 years. These books have made all the difference in my physics and calculus classes.

I'm a physicist and am 1/3 of the way through this text. I am puzzled about the subject choices and have found many errors. The book must not have been proofread by someone that understood the math or, alternatively, did not calculate each and every assertion in the text and problems. In the section on zeros of polynomials, for example, the text makes a claim about zeros of f(x) and about f(-x), but the the signs are interchanged. What is more important is that various portions of text are stated imprecisely, so I don't see how someone could really apply what is being stated. I think the book is trying to fill an important niche. Many people stumble in physics because of basic math. This book is worth updating after a careful review and edit. An update might spend more time on trig (identities) and less time on polynomial roots or families of circles.

This book is rife with mathematical errors, both in the text and in the solved problems or their answers. I skipped over many of the problems in the first half of the book and still encountered an error every few pages. In the second half of the book, there are many parts that have a mathematical error on every page, sometimes more than one error per page. If you already know the math you can spot the errors, but if you haven't already taken classes in the math this book is about, it will lead you astray and confuse you badly. Most of the errors are in the answers to problems, and if you can use Maple or Mathematica you can find out the correct answer, though it's a terrific waste of time. But there are also serious factual (mathematical) errors in the text itself. These are probably typos; there are other errors and style inconsistencies that make me think the book has not been proofread even cursorily. I emailed McGraw-Hill about this. When I first wrote this review, I had not received a reply from them after waiting almost two weeks. However, after 2 1/2 weeks, I did receive a reply from an editor apologizing, informing me that they were going to contact the authors to "rectify every error" for the next reprint, offering a refund of my purchase price, and thanking me for informing them. Better late than never, and I'm much more inclined to consider Schaum books in the future now. If I eventually find a newer printing on the shelves, I'll check a few of the errors I know about and update this review as to whether they were corrected.

El libro ya advierte que es básico, pero se dedica demasiado espacio a los temas elementales en detrimento de los que son algo más complejos, lo cual entiendo que deberia ser justo al contrario.