Study Aid Review: Schaum's 3,000 Solved Problems in Physics (Schaum's Outlines) 1st Edition

 

This is one of the Schaum's guides that is really just a problems repository. It does not have much in the way of explanatory material designed to teach you the subject. It is meant to be used in conjunction with a textbook so you can get the explanation of the subject from the book and then come to this for problems. One very helpful thing is that it classifies the problems into categories. Some problems are meant to be very basic examples, much like you will see in the chapter text that are pretty easy and only take one or two steps to solve. Then the book will give homework problems that are divided into problems for everyone (basically problems you would see in algebra-based physics) and calculus-based homework problems. It also suggests problems to select for exams (easy, hard, or calculus-based) for each chapter and to use for a final exam.

My one issue with the book is that there are not many of what I refer to as "compound problems". By that, I mean problems that have 6-7 steps that you have to solve, and you generally use the solution to one step to solve for one of the other steps and so on. In many calculus-based physics classes, calculus is used to derive the formulas, but on the exams, you just use algebra to solve compound problems. If I remember correctly, between the 8 exams I had in two semesters of calculus-based physics, we only had two or three problems that required using calculus in the exams. Obviously, this can vary from teacher to teacher, but because the problems that use calculus take so long to solve, on exams many teachers use problems that have multiple parts but you just use algebra to solve the problems. So, if you have a teacher who does that, this is likely to be more helpful to you on homework problems (where you generally will have to use calculus more) but may not be as helpful mimicking your exam problems. So, with those provisos, I definitely think it is one of the more helpful supplements out there and does give a good breakdown of the solutions so you actually learn how to solve the problems.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Engineering Mechanics: Statics (Schaum's Outlines) 6th Edition

 

Chances are, most people who have taken upper-level science and engineering classes are familiar with Schaum's outlines, and the different outlines range in quality. This one is definitely on the lower-quality end of the spectrum. As others have noted, there are a lot of errors in the solutions that are worked out, and many problems just give answers without any solutions which, based on the number of errors in the worked-out solutions, you cannot have a high degree of confidence in. The explanatory material is pretty light in this outline and is really not much easier to follow (and in some cases not even as easy to follow) as the explanatory materials in the textbook (at least the textbook I had to use).

It can be used as a supplement, but just be aware that you may have to put in a lot more effort to get what you need out of it than you will have to put into the use of other outlines. If you do have a good teacher and can follow the textbook fairly well, then you can probably just skip this, or find a better supplement.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Electric Circuits, Fifth Edition

 

This is a good supplement that will cover much of the material that you will be exposed to in the first year of circuits analysis, which is usually split into two semesters. This does have some explanatory material like what you will see in the chapter text of a textbook, and sometimes it lays things out more clearly than the book does (depending on which textbook your school uses; some are better than others). On the whole, I would say that the Schaum's Outline of Basic Circuit Analysis has better explanatory material than this guide does, but this one tends to have more challenging problems.

My one big issue with this is that it branches out too much into material that is not covered just in circuits and gets into some of the higher-level concepts that you would get in a class on signals, electronics, electric and magnetic fields, and so forth. I think this outline could have focused more on the material that is covered in the vast majority of the first-year curriculums (because some of that is very light), and then done a chapter or two on the more advanced concepts to give a roadmap to the topics that are covered in other classes and how they tie into the material of in the introductory circuits classes. That said, it does have a lot of example problems that will definitely help you with your homework, and it gives good explanations for the material it does cover.

Study Aid Review: The Ultimate Physics 2 Tutor Volume 1: Thermodynamics

 

This set is honestly, probably a bit overkill for the amount of Thermodynamics you are likely to be exposed to in Physics. Most physics curriculums tackle Thermo for a couple of weeks (at most) either at the very end of the first semester or the very beginning of the second semester. This will give you all the theory behind the concepts of Thermo and the equations that you will need in Physics. But, Thermo also comes up in the first year of Chemistry (at least part of which any engineering major will need to take) and is offered as a stand-alone engineering class that will either be required or an elective, depending on what area of engineering you are studying. While the examples that Jason goes over on this set are not exactly like the problems you would see in an engineering Thermodynamics class, the theory is the same, and will definitely help you.

The set is divided into three discs, each of which has several lessons/sections.

Disc One Contains:
Section 1: Thermometers and Temperature Scales
Section 2: Expansion and Contraction of Solids and Liquids
Section 3: Kinetic Theory of Gases

Disc 2 Contains:
Section 4: Heat
Section 5: Latent Heat and Phase Change
Section 6: Heat Transfer by Convection, Radiation, and Conduction
Section 7: Work, Heat, and PV Diagrams

And Disc 3 Contains:
Section 8: The First Law of Thermodynamics
Section 9: Heat Engines and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Section 10: Refrigerators
Section 11: Entropy

For me, the section on PV diagrams was very helpful, and it is probably the lesson that helped me the most in my engineering Thermodynamics class. We did not really discuss them much in physics but used them all the time in the engineering class. Like Jason's other sets, he breaks down each topic providing enough theory to make the topic understandable without getting bogged down in the minutia. Then he goes through examples to help solidify the topics. It is just him standing in front of a whiteboard giving a simulated lecture, however, and not everyone's style of learning is conducive to that. But, if yours is, this is a great set that will be helpful beyond just a physics class.

Study Aid Review: How to Solve Physics Problems

 

This is a decent book to help you learn the concepts of physics and give you some exposure to the theory. It does have some helpful information at the beginning of the book about how to approach class, how to test yourself to determine if you are learning the concepts, etc. The two main drawbacks are that it does have a bunch of typos. I have not come across anything that made what it was trying to say incomprehensible, and I did not notice errors in the worked-out solutions (but I did not go through them all). Second, like most physics supplements, even though it does discuss some calculus concepts, it does not have examples of what I would describe as multi-part or compound problems that you often get in calculus-based physics classes.

A lot of times, the calculus in calc-based physics is used in lectures to derive the formulas, but when you have exams, you do not have to actually use much calculus. So, teachers tend to make the problems harder than what students in an algebra-based physics class will have to deal with, and one way they do that is to break the problems into a bunch of parts and make you solve for five or six different things. And, a lot of times you have to use the solution to one thing to calculate something else. For example, you will be required to solve for time, then use the value that you calculate for time to then calculate the initial velocity, and once you have that, you can solve for something else. Problems that just ask you to (or show you how to) solve for just one thing are helpful to an extent but are not nearly as complex as what you are likely to see on an exam.

Another drawback to the book is that the drawings are really very basic. That was probably a decision to save money, and while you can still figure out what they are showing, they could have been a lot better. So, overall, this will be a good resource, to a point, but if you are taking calc-based physics (or AP physics in high school) it may not be enough.

Study Aid Review: Homework Helpers: Physics, Revised Edition

 

This is a great guide for a high-school, non-AP physics class, or an algebra-based physics class at the college level. It contains the material that you will see in the first two semesters of physics (Newtonian motion and mechanics, electricity and magnetism, waves and light, optics, thermodynamics, and nuclear physics (which sometimes gets introduced in the second semester, and sometimes it is left for the more advanced classes)). It does not cover subjects like quantum physics or relativity, or the other material you would see in a Modern Physics class to any great extent.
The introductory chapter discusses topics like unit conversion, symbols, sign conventions, and the basics of algebra and trigonometry that you will need to know. The rest of the chapters are broken into lessons that introduce the theory behind each topic, give examples, and then provide a short problem set at the end. Then, at the end of each chapter, there is a chapter test that has problem types from each lesson, and an answer key to the problems in the chapter. The answer key does not work out the problems, just allows you to check your work. So, it does not spoonfeed you everything and makes you learn the material. The examples in the chapters are fully worked out, and the problems in the problem sets are representative of the example problems.

One thing I love about the approach is that the book stresses solving the problems symbolically first, and then plugging the values in at the end. Far too many people tend to plug the numbers in as they go, which provides many more opportunities for making math mistakes. Now, most physics teachers do not kill you for math mistakes, but some do. If you solve the problems symbolically first, you show your teacher that you actually understand the problem and how to solve it, and if you screw up on the math at the very end, you will get the vast majority of the points. It also provides a good template for how to set up your answer by labeling what is given and what you are trying to find, which shows that you can interpret what the question is asking for correctly.

If there is one drawback to this guide is that it does not have a lot of multi-step problems. Meaning problems where you have to calculate one parameter (like time) using one formula and then take that result and plug it into a different formula to solve for a different parameter (like distance or velocity). Those kinds of problems are almost exclusively what you will get on calculus-based physics exams because they are more complex than problems that amount to just "plug and chug" where you are given all the information you need to solve the problem upfront. But, because this is geared for the "easier" problem types, just know that if you are going to be taking calc-based physics the examples and the problems you get in this guide are going to be similar to your easiest homework problems, and will not be anywhere near as complex as the hardest homework problems or any exam problems you will have. But, even if you are going to be taking calc-based physics, this can be used to learn the theory (especially if you cannot easily follow the textbook or your teacher is not a good lecturer) and provide you with basic examples from which to build from. So, I highly recommend this regardless of what level of physics you are taking.

Book/Study Aid Review: Student Solutions Manual for Blanchard/Devaney/Hall's Differential Equations, 4th

This is actually one of the better solution manuals I used when I was taking math. It is light on explanation, but that is really what the book is for. The book was not the best written and did not always make for the easiest read, but between the book and class lecture, I could figure it out. This has the solutions to the odd-numbered problems from the book. One of the reviews complains that it does not have the solutions to the even problems, but every student solution manual has just the odd problems worked out. Only the instructor's solution manuals have all the problems worked out, and those are very hard to track down (obviously). Generally, if you can work the odd problems you can figure out how to do the even problems.

What makes this better than some of the other solution manuals is that it has solutions for the vast majority, if not all, of the odd problems. I have used other student solution manuals that only have some of the odd problems worked out, and that is a pain. And, of the problems that I used this to check my work (my instructor assigned some problems from the book and made up others of his own), I did not notice any errors, so the editors did a good job. So, overall, it was a good investment.

 

Book/Study Guide Review: The Physics Problem Solver

 

The REA problem-solvers guides give you a lot of example problems on all of the major topics you will come across in the first year of physics. It does cover some of the more advanced material that you would come across in a Modern Physics class including Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, but I just took the first two semesters of physics which covers Newtonian Mechanics, Optics, Waves, Electricity, Magnetism, and Thermodynamics. The book definitely has a lot of examples covering those subjects, but I am not sure how extensive it gets into the higher-level concepts.

The guide does lay out some of the theory, but it generally confines that to a few pages and then gets into the example problems. It works out the examples in a lot of detail, and it gives you strategies for how to solve the various problem types. The two cons that I noticed when using this is that the diagrams are pretty basic. It definitely does not give the kind of higher-quality drawings that the textbooks will give you, but they do provide you with enough detail on how to attack the problem. Second, the solutions do, at times, skip steps. Usually, they are things that you should know how to do by the time you are taking physics, but sometimes it can be hard to figure out how they got from one point to the next. The guide also has a wide range of problem types, both the "easier" problems that you will get in algebra-based physics and the more complex problems that you get in calculus-based physics. And, it does go over calculus concepts like the dot product and cross product that you will need to solve some problems that actually use calculus. So, it will be helpful no matter what version of physics you are taking.

Textbook Review: Calculus - Multivariable: Student Solution Manual

 

Getting a solution manual is always a mixed bag. If you rely on them too much you may not actually learn anything and will not be doing yourself any favors when it comes time to take an exam. However, Calculus III is probably the hardest class in the calculus sequence that anyone who wants to go into engineering or get a physics degree has to take, and the problems can be hard to figure out, especially if your teacher is not all that great. The textbook to which this solution manual is keyed is so useless and has so few examples, the solution manual is almost required to figure out how to do the problems. The book is not going to give you much guidance at all so the only way to quickly figure out how to do the problems without camping out in your professor's office during office hours is to use this.

The problem with this thing is that it only has solutions for some of the odd problems, and it does have some errors in it. And because it is a solution manual, it just shows the steps (although it does not always show every step, and sometimes omits crucial steps) and does not provide any explanation for why you have to do things a certain way. So, if you do not understand why the problems are being solved the way they are, you will still be lost. But, it will give you some worked-out examples to go off of which is better than nothing.

Study Aid Review: Calculus III Essentials

 

The thing to know about this is that it does not cover all of the concepts from Calc III. It is basically an outline that will discuss the "big" concepts that you will need to know, give some definitions, etc. It is really a breakdown of the explanatory material that comes before the problem sets and presents that stuff in a compact, concise manner. So, I found that its best use was for using when I was either working on a practice exam that our teacher gave us or when I put together my own practice exam to work on. But if I needed more in-depth examples, then I had to go to other sources.

Study Guide Review: Advanced Calculus Demystified

 

This is a study aid/supplement for what is for many the hardest class in the calculus sequence, multivariable calculus (usually called Calc III). It is the class that takes all the concepts from the first year of calculus, adds an additional dimension, and makes the problems way more complex. If you end up with a teacher that is not great at explaining the concepts and/or get stuck with a crappy textbook (which was definitely the case for me), you will need to look to study aids to get through that class.

This is a pretty mixed bag as a study guide. It does cover all of the material that you will see in class, including topics that some of the other popular study aids out there do not, like parameterizations. The problem is that it uses a different notation for some of the concepts that make it very hard to follow what it is getting at, and there are mistakes that are not always easy to catch. One thing I do like about it is that I does not really give study tips or that kind of thing. The authors just pretty much assume if you are at the level of taking Calc III, you know how to study and get through class. It just jumps right into discussing multivariable functions and goes from there.

Overall, I would say that it is a book that you can use in conjunction with a textbook to flesh out the material in the book and get some additional example problems. You would not really be able to teach yourself the entirety of a multivariable calculus class, but it will give you a good base to start from. Just know that how the material is presented in the book may differ from how you see it in class.

Book/Study Aid Review: How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide

 

This is a book that I used mostly to help teach myself calculus before I had to take the class. The first handful of chapters (about the first 30 pages or so) deal with things like choosing the right teacher, study tips, exam taking, etc. Then, it gets into the meat of the material that you will learn in class. It covers all of the major topics from the first semester of calculus and most of the material in the second semester. Of course, that depends on how your school structures the calculus curriculum, but if it is a standard split where the first semester deals with derivatives and their application, and then introduces integrals, and the second semester focuses on all of the various integration techniques and their applications, then this will get you through that. Some second-semester calc classes also cover an introduction to differential equations, and if your school does that, this book will not cover that material.

The book is not what I would call a problems repository. It is more like the explanatory material that comes before the problem sets in the textbooks and provides some examples. The explanation of the theory and how to work problems are better than you would get in a lot of textbooks, but if you would need to get something like one of Schaum's guides if you want something that just has a ton of practice problems. One of the very helpful things the author does is give tips for things to look out for when working with different problem types and point out common mistakes that people make. If you can internalize those concepts quickly and do a lot of practice problems you will learn the material and avoid unnecessary mistakes. So, if you can learn from a book, which is definitely hard for some people, this one is a good resource to help you learn the material. I would read this in conjunction with the textbook to help make sense of what the textbook is trying to explain.

Book/Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Calculus, 5th ed.

 

Schaum's Outlines tend to range from being textbook-like (which this one is) to basically problems repositories. The textbook-like outlines will give an overview of each topic in the chapter sections, and then worked out examples, and then problems. So it is organized much like the textbooks are. The advantage that you get is that the explanatory material is not as long, more concise, and generally better than you get in the textbooks. And, all of the problems have answers, unlike the textbook in which you will only get an answer key for some of the problems.

This book covers all of the material in the first year of calculus, which in most schools is split between Calculus 1 and Calculus 2, and covers some of the material from Multivariable Calculus (usually called Calculus 3). Meaning it will cover derivatives and integrals and their applications, then it gets into partial derivatives and double and triple integrals. I had a great teacher for Calculus 1, a good teacher for Calculus 2, and an average teacher for Calculus 3, so I did not rely on this as much in Calc 1 as I did in the other classes. This definitely helped me figure out how to do the disk and washer methods of integration which neither my textbook nor my Calc 2 teacher (who just lectured from the textbook) explained well. It has over 1000 fully worked-out problems which are way more than any textbook will give you. So, if you are struggling in Calculus and are looking for resources to help you, this is a good one, depending on what your learning syle is.

Product/Book/Study Aid Review: Student Solutions Manual for Precalculus: Enhanced with Graphing Utilities 5th Edition

 

This is a decent solution manual. Of course, unlike the instructor's solution manual, this does not have all the problems in the book worked out. It mostly just works out the odd problems, but it definitely helps you if you get stuck on a problem. It works out enough of the problems that even if you are assigned one that is not worked out, one of the problems that are worked out will likely help you. The textbook this corresponds to is one of the better math textbooks that I had when I was taking classes, but even so, I did have to use this from time to time because the examples in the book were not always helpful for all of the problems we were assigned.

Book Review: Algebra for Dummies Education Bundle

 

This is a bundle of the Algebra for dummies book and workbook. It discusses all of the major concepts you would be required to know in an intermediate algebra class and most of what you would be exposed to in a college algebra class. Like the other "for dummies" books, it gives you a lot of tips for solving problems, things to watch out for that can trip you up, and things that your regular textbook will rarely give you. The workbook matches the layout of the "regular" book, but it is lighter on the explanatory material and heavy on the example problems. Whereas the regular book is heavy on the explanatory material and lighter on problems for you to work out.

I got this years ago when I started going back to school to get what ultimately became an electrical engineering degree. Because I had been out of math for so long, I had to basically start over at intermediate algebra and got this as a study guide to teach myself the material before taking the class. While I still had to work hard in both intermediate and college algebra, this helped make sense of the material in the book, which was especially helpful in intermediate algebra since I was in a section that was basically a "teach yourself" the material without a lecture attached to it. Until I really got good at reading the textbooks (which basically became easy once I got to physics), it helped to have the concepts distilled down. Having taken the entire calculus sequence plus numerous physics and engineering classes, I can tell you that strong algebra skills are essential as you get further along. Being good at algebra will not guarantee that higher-level classes will be a breeze, but it will ensure that you do not needlessly lose points because even in calculus, a lot of times what takes the most time is doing algebraic simplification, and it presents the most opportunity to make mistakes. So, depending on your style of learning, this is a good supplement if you cannot understand what your textbook is saying. And, for those who are just trying to learn math without taking a class, this will give you a good handle on the material.

Book Review: Calculus for Dummies Education Bundle

 

This bundle contains the Calculus for Dummies book and corresponding workbook. The book itself mostly has explanatory material, written much more concisely than what you get from the textbooks, and has a lot of good tips for solving problems. There are some example problems and problems meant for people to work out, but most of the problems are in the workbook. That is light on explanatory material (just repeats the basics) but has quite a few problems from the various concepts.

This covers derivatives and their applications like related rates and optimization, and integration and its applications. For some schools that is pretty much all of calc 1 and most of calc II. For other schools, it would be the entire calc I curriculum. It really just depends on how the classes at your school split up the material. It does not cover multivariable calculus, linear algebra, or differential equations, which in some schools are generally covered in calculus 3 and calculus 4. It is not as big as a textbook (obviously) so there is some material that your teacher may cover that is not in this guide, but it does cover all of the "main" concepts you will be exposed to in class. So, if you are someone who learns by reading, but the textbook does not do it for you, you should definitely give this a try.

Book Review: Physics Workbook for Dummies

 

This is the companion book to Physics for Dummies, by the same author. Hence, it follows the same chapter format and layout of that book. This is mostly just a book with problems to practice. There is some explanatory material, but that is kept to a minimum. Like the Physics for Dummies book, this is geared more toward high-school-level (or algebra-based) physics classes. That is not to say it will not help if you are taking calculus-based physics, because it will. The equations and most of the concepts are exactly the same in calculus-based physics as in algebra-based physics classes. However, just know that if you are taking calculus-based physics, some of the problems you will be exposed to are much more difficult than what this will throw at you. But, as a primer to learn physics concepts and get practice working on problems, this is a very good option.

Book Review: Physics for Dummies

 

This is a book that introduces the concepts that you will learn in a first-semester physics class, like the laws of motion, gravitation, conservation of energy, and the like. It does have some examples, and some problems that you can work out on your own, but it is mostly the kind of explanatory material that you get in the chapter reading. But, it distills all of the concepts so that they are generally more understandable than what you get from a textbook (and some teachers). It is definitely geared more toward high school physics or what in college is referred to as algebra-based physics. As most people who have taken calculus-based physics already know, calculus is mainly used to derive the equations, but you still mainly use algebra to solve the problems. So, what most teachers do is, in algebra-based physics classes they assign the "easier" versions of the problems and in calculus-based physics classes, they assign the harder problems. So, the kind of examples and the problems in this are definitely the easier versions, but it is a good primer even if you are going to be taking calculus-based physics because it will introduce you to the concepts, give you some experience with solving physics problems, and put you in a good position once you start class. And, for those who get this just because they want to learn something about physics, or refresh their knowledge of the subject, it is good for that too.