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| View Larger Image | Introduction to Solid State Physics
by Charles Kittel
| | Price: | $91.92 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 17806 | | Studio: | Wiley | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 704 | | Publication Date: | November 11, 2004 | | Publisher: | Wiley |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Since the publication of the first edition over 50 years ago, Introduction to Solid State Physics has been the standard solid state physics text for physics students. The author's goal from the beginning has been to write a book that is accessible to undergraduates and consistently teachable. The emphasis in the book has always been on physics rather than formal mathematics. With each new edition, the author has attempted to add important new developments in the field without sacrificing the book's accessibility and teachability.
* A very important chapter on nanophysics has been written by an active worker in the field. This field is the liveliest addition to solid state science during the past ten years
* The text uses the simplifications made possible by the wide availability of computer technology. Searches using keywords on a search engine (such as Google) easily generate many fresh and useful references |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 2.5 based on 42 reviews)
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Generations of solid state students suffered 
Generations of solid state physics students, including myself, have been brought up using this text by Kittel. I have also taught from this text numerous times. Poor, poor students! The text "contains" all the requisite material, but its explanations are murky and it it slips major concepts by without making them clear. I have resolved never again to make my students suffer with this text. Ashcroft & Mermin is wonderful book, but too advance as an introductory text. Bube's little book, Electrons in Solids, is a delight but too expensive for students and a little bit too elementary. Despite their limitations, I'm going to use the combination of those from now on.
July 21, 2008 | |
Terrible Writing, Written to Memorize Facts and Not understand 
This is a pathetic textbook. The writing in it is awful, and sadly contributes to the stereotype that scientists do not know how to write. It is foolish to always give conclusions before derivations. It gives no motivation whatsoever for approaching certain questions nor the methods in which they are approached. It moves in a very inconsistent manner, developing topics very much at random, most annoyingly fading in and out of discussion of electronic models (Drude, Sommerfeld, Boch, weak periodic, etc). These models are at the core of the development of the field, and Kittel just kind of weaves in and out of random topics without bothering to explain why to describe things in such a manner (no discussion of why phonons are a good way to discuss system, no discussion of why we should obsess over k-space to describe every problem). Ashcroft and Mermin, by comparison, is a fantastic textbook which I highly recommend.
March 30, 2008 | |
Solid State Physics Book 
This book is in good condition! It also came in good time (a little less than a week). I am a satisfied customer.
October 08, 2007 | |
I'm sorry
Hey guys, so my friend and I are trying to work through a problem set in our solid state physics course at UC Berkeley and as you might imagine, because Kittel was one of our professors, the department likes to use his books. We love ourselves. Unfortunately for us undergrads (and all of you) we are forced to use his book. Now our problem sets reeeally shouldn't be too much of a problem. For instance, we were asked to solve something for x-ray diffraction and though we had a little bit of an understanding a la Kittel, we found that that little tidbit of knowledge could not in fact be used with confronted with data or a simple experimental setup. There are simply no examples. We have not read Ashcroft or the other books suggested, but after I write this review, we will certainly be out there to purchase another book.
I just wanted to say that I'm sorry we harbored the professor that wrote ths book. I'm sure he's not a bad guy. I know it's hard to write coherently, but seriously this is ridiculous.
September 27, 2007 | |
To be read together with Ashcroft and Mermin 
This book has been compared so much with A&M that I have a suggestion - read both together! There are some parts in Kittel where a better treatment can be found in A&M, such as the treatment on Bravais lattice. And A&M goes into greater detail into some topics such as the Drude and Sommerfeld theory of metals. But I feel that there are many areas where Kittel is superior simply because the notation is simpler and the treatment more concise. See, for instance, the material on the empty lattice approximation and energy bands. Kittel is also more updated, and the 8th edition includes a chapter on nanostructures written by Paul McEuen.
Kittel is not a perfect book, but neither is A&M. The two, however, seem to complement each other. There are many instances when I come across something I do not understand, and I find it explained better in the other book. So if you have the time (and money!), read both!
December 02, 2006 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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