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| View Larger Image | Statistical Mechanics
by Kerson Huang
| | Price: | $110.65 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 194867 | | Studio: | Wiley | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 512 | | Publication Date: | December 31, 1969 | | Publisher: | Wiley |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Unlike most other texts on the subject, this clear, concise introduction to the theory of microscopic bodies treats the modern theory of critical phenomena. Provides up-to-date coverage of recent major advances, including a self-contained description of thermodynamics and the classical kinetic theory of gases, interesting applications such as superfluids and the quantum Hall effect, several current research applications, The last three chapters are devoted to the Landau-Wilson approach to critical phenomena. Many new problems and illustrations have been added to this edition. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 2.5 based on 15 reviews)
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Absolutely, Utterly, Unequivocally Horrid 
This is the worst book I have ever had the displeasure to encounter in any field.
Ever.
Is there any way I can possibly be any more clear?
I'm not going to parse the book for you. But, I will tell you a few things which might come in handy:
The book is utterly confusing and baffling. While most other physics textbooks explain things poorly, you can usually still pick up at least a few things from them. As you can see by my review of Jackson's "Electrodynamics", I have no love for that book.
This book makes Jackson look like Shakespeare.
I used the book in a one-semester graduate level class while I was working on my PhD at one of the top ten physics programs in the US.
I don't know how to explain this, but let me try:
Physics is hard, OK? Typically, you might read something in a grad level textbook and not get a darn thing the first time. Then you start slowly and go line by line, and slowly understanding comes upon you. The reason it happens this way is because you, the reader, don't understand the physics at first, but the author of the book does. As you focus and think on the text, you gradually understand.
With this book, it doesn't matter how long or how diligently you focus on the text--- you won't understand. The reason for that in this case is because the text is utterly illogical, pedagogically terrible, filled with baffling nonsequiturs, and so disconnected from physical reality that it seems like a math textbook.
See, the thing is, though, it's NOT a math textbook-- because math textbooks use logic and deductive reasoning. This book is just a bunch of really badly-done math-like gibberish, both disconnected from physics as well as logic.
It is utter garbage.
Please, professors, the only reason you should be assigning this book to your students is if you all need some kindling for the end of semester bonfire. That way you can at least use it to demonstrate an experimental example of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics.
That is the only useful purpose it can possibly be put.
March 02, 2008 | |
A good resource for advanced topics 
I learned statistical mechanics from `Statistical Mechanics' by K. Huang and `Statistical Mechanics' by S.K. Ma. In my opinion, most books on the elementray principles, including the book by K. Huang, are too complicated for beginners. The best treatments as far as I know are given by `Statistical Physics, part I' by Landau and Lifshize and the one by S.K. Ma. Another weak points in Huang's book are the discussions about ideal quantum gases. It presents formal mathematical methods to study this problem. I think that this approach is also too complicated for beginners and sometimes bury the relevant physical ideas. In this part, the best treatment for the ideal Bose gas is given by `Statistical mechanics' by T.D. Lee (in Chinese), and for the ideal Fermi gas given by S.K. Ma.
For these parts, I should give 3 stars. However, the strong parts of Huang's book is the chapters on the advanced topics. The writting is compact and clear. They can be served as a good introduction to the modern theory of critical phenomena and superfluidity. Further, they are useful references for research. In addition, the formal manipulation for quantum ideal gases is necessary for research though it seems a little bit complicated for students. For all these, I gave 4 stars to this book.
Finally, I should say that the approach of Huang's book is not based on the kinetic theory though it spends a few chapters on this aspect. The reason why the kinetic theory is put before the chapters on SM, in my opinion, is to emphasize the important role played by collisions between particles to establish thermal equilibrium and the validity of the basic assumption of SM, as indicated by S.K. Ma in his book. I think previous reviews about this are misleading.
January 13, 2007 | |
Not standard, Not so bad
As repeated by reviewers below, this is NOT STANDARD textbook on statistical mechanics because it stresses the kinetic theory. If reader would like to learn the equilibrium theory, this book might be embarassing. However, this book is recommended to anyone who is interested in "unusual" viewpoint. I prefer Huang to other numerous too standard textbooks. But I am a little disappointed that some interesting topics are removed in the new edition, such as the Chapman-Enskog method.Now, it is NOT SO BAD.
July 23, 2003 | |
Least favorite of all I've seen
Huang approaches the subject as a series of proofs: he does not make physical arguments, and his writing is wooden. Instructors--avoid this book!Some have said that this book approaches stat mech from the refreshing view of kinetic theory. But it leaves out the Fokker-Planck and Langevin approaches, by which the Boltzmann equation is usually solved. Anyone interested in this approach would be *far* more rewarded by Landau's Physical Kinetics. Anyone interested in Gibbs theory should consult Landau or Sommerfeld. Anyone who wants good problems (and real applications) would be better served by the canonical McQuarrie. Anyone who wants a feel for what the subject *actually now is* should see Kadanoff or Chandler. Actually I think allowing students to leave stat mech without seeing the monte carlo algorithm or solving a stochastic equation is a crime.
June 06, 2003 | |
Unreadable
The reviewer below who said that this book pursues primarily a kinetic theory - Boltzmann Transport Equation approach, got it right. It really is a fearsome, and by and large, pointless read. Our professor used this book in our stat. mech. class back in 1992. He also used Mahan's Many Particle Physics book in our solid state course and de Genne's Superconductivity text in our superconductor course, so that gives you an idea of what kind of person likes Huang. Most students I've talked to feel that this text is the worst sort of student pain. The pain you feel when after exerting colossal effort trying to understand, you realize at the end of the semester that you didn't learn anything, and that you could have, if only the instructor had chosen one of any number of better books. I am completely mystified as to why and how this book has reached a 3rd edition. Perhaps there are too many physics professors out there who don't care about pedagogy.
June 02, 2003 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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