The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 6th Edition 6th Edition by H. John Pain (PDF)

Description

The main theme of this highly successful book is that the transmission of energy by wave propogation is fundamental to almost every branch of physics. Therefore, besides giving students a thorough grounding in the theory of waves and vibrations, the book also demonstrates the pattern and unity of a large part of physics.This new edition has been thoroughly revised and has been redeisgned to meet the best contemporary standards. It includes new material on electron waves in solids using the Kronig-Penney model to show how their allowed energies are limited to Brillouin zones, The role of phonons is also discussed. An Optical Transform is used to demonstrate the modern method of lens testing. In the last two chapters the sections on chaos and solitons have been reduced but their essential contents remain.As with earlier editions, the book has a large number of problems together with hints on how to solve them. The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 6th Edition will prove invaluable for students taking a first full course in the subject across a variety of disciplines particularly physics, engineering and mathematics.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This is an excellent textbook, full of interesting material clearly explained, and fully worthy of being studied by future contributors …” (Journal of Sound and Vibration: 293, July 2006) From the Inside Flap The main theme of this highly successful book is that the transmission of energy by wave propogation is fundamental to almost every branch of physics. Therefore, besides giving students a thorough grounding in the theory of waves and vibrations, the book also demonstrates the pattern and unity of a large part of physics. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and has been redeisgned to meet the best contemporary standards. It includes new material on electron waves in solids using the Kronig-Penney model to show how their allowed energies are limited to Brillouin zones, The role of phonons is also discussed. An Optical Transform is used to demonstrate the modern method of lens testing. In the last two chapters the sections on chaos and solitons have been reduced but their essential contents remain.As with earlier editions, the book has a large number of problems together with hints on how to solve them. The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 6th Edition will prove invaluable for students taking a first full course in the subject across a variety of disciplines particularly physics, engineering and mathematics. From the Back Cover The main theme of this highly successful book is that the transmission of energy by wave propogation is fundamental to almost every branch of physics. Therefore, besides giving students a thorough grounding in the theory of waves and vibrations, the book also demonstrates the pattern and unity of a large part of physics. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and has been redeisgned to meet the best contemporary standards. It includes new material on electron waves in solids using the Kronig-Penney model to show how their allowed energies are limited to Brillouin zones, The role of phonons is also discussed. An Optical Transform is used to demonstrate the modern method of lens testing. In the last two chapters the sections on chaos and solitons have been reduced but their essential contents remain.As with earlier editions, the book has a large number of problems together with hints on how to solve them. The Physics of Vibrations and Waves, 6th Edition will prove invaluable for students taking a first full course in the subject across a variety of disciplines particularly physics, engineering and mathematics. About the Author H. J. Pain is a graduate of the united states Naval Aviation Academy, Florida, and of the Universities of St Andrews, London and Aix Marseilles. He taught physics at Imperial College, London where his research interests were in shock waves and magnetohydrodynamics. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book was chosen as a text for a course in Vibrations and Waves that I took. Within weeks, the overall consensus among everyone in the course was that this is, as far as any of us are aware, perhaps the worst textbook ever written on any subject.The book is opaque, and yet astonishingly verbose, full of typos, and incapable of explaining anything to someone who doesn’t already know the topic. The problems at the ends of chapters are largely “here is a result, show it is true by algebraically manipulating these other formulae” — it is possible to answer dozens of such problems without learning even a tiny bit of physics.Some derivations in this book are so incomprehensible that no amount of reading and re-reading will produce comprehension even in the most mathematically sophisticated student. In other cases, extensive study and examination of other references will sometimes — sometimes — reveal what Pain is trying to say.This is the sixth edition of the book. I can’t believe either that enough people bought the previous editions to justify the printing of this one, or that this is the best that could have been achieved after five previous attempts.If you are interested in this topic, I recommend, instead, the excellent “Vibrations and Waves” by A.P. French, which is far thinner and yet far more thorough. As just one example, H.J. Pain (quite an apt name) says, about complex notation, that i “may be considered an operator which rotates vectors 90 degrees”. That’s thrown out to you without any further explanation of any sort. A.P. French, by contrast, spends pages developing your understanding of complex notation. As I mentioned, however, although French is far more thorough and explains things far better, his textbook is a fraction of the size, is still in its first edition, and is far cheaper.

⭐I am a math and physics student, and I was in two courses where this book was the “official” text. In the first course, the professor was very hopeful at the beginning of the semester. As we progressed through the course, it became apparent that many of the problems were incorrectly formulated, leading to impossible, nonsensical, answers, or to none at all.In the second course, the professor—a top researcher who wrote his PhD thesis under Dr. Steven Weinberg—told us on the first day, “The book is posted as the official class text, but you can sell it back right now. If I use any problems from this book, I’ll make copies for you.” The professor taught from his personally created notes for the course, which were excellent.From the perspective of an average undergraduate physics or engineering major who is taking his or her first transition-into-upper-level-physics class, this book by H.J. Pain is an overwhelming, confusing sludge of unclear derivations, incorrect problems, and a whimsical ordering of material. The problems are often challenging—but you cannot solve the majority of them after reading the corresponding chapter. Furthermore, many of the problems are errorenous, lead to physically improbable, or even impossible, results, sometimes with incorrect units for the desired quantities. I posit that the only reason someone should own this book is to be able to copy down the assigned problem from class.Looking at the text right now, I think I could learn—or have learned already!—how NOT to present the material. Much of the material is more suitable for an upper-division optics class. For example, the very first chapter, which begins talking about specific mechanical oscillators with no introduction to the material, later makes a terrifying jump cut to “Superposition of Several Waves” and “Polarization of Light”. Much of the later material is haphazardly ordered, and some of it is even from upper-level or graduate courses on condensed matter!This brings me to another major fault: the author provides very little, or zero motivation for the physics discussion. This accompanies great leaps of faith in the derivations, as well as seeming mathematical “miracles”, leaving the freshman or early-sophomore (1st year and 2nd year, respectively, for those of you overseas) behind in the mathematical dust.Not only does the author make transitions that are difficult-to-follow, he seems to taunt his readers with confidence-crumbling “obviously”s, “it should be clear to the reader that”, and other such phrases, instead of, perhaps, parenthetically justifying the next step (e.g. “by conservation of momentum”, or “subsituting from Eq. 6.2 and dividing both sides by common terms,”). Looking back, I can see how to tie the material together, but that knowledge comes from optics and modern physics courses I’ve taken, as well as background reading.NEEDLESS TO SAY, The UT physics department has DONE AWAY WITH this book and has gone back to the Berkeley Waves course:http://www.amazon.com/Waves-Berkeley-Physics-Course-WAVES/dp/0070048606And the MIT Vibrations and Waves book by A.P. French:http://www.amazon.com/Vibrations-Waves-M-I-T-Introductory-Physics/dp/0393099369Some professors also use Hecht’s “Optics”:http://www.amazon.com/Optics-4th-Eugene-Hecht/dp/0805385665/I sincerely hope you enjoy your study of waves and find the resources you need.

⭐I still remember the time when i was a stressed-out EECS undergraduate, desperately trying to figure out what’s going on in my “Waves” class. The professor was one of these guys that could make you forget what you already knew and at the time i fully trusted the recommended textbooks. I didn’t read reviews or study from other books.I cringe even now when i think about the countless hours i dedicated trying to figure out what was going on. I must have studied this book for months and got nothing in return. Mr Pain fails to communicate even the most basic ideas about waves and jumps from topic to topic like a grasshoper. Things like “standing wave”, “travelling wave” and “mode” were unknown to me as the semester was ending…I don’t exactly know how i managed not to fail the class (the grade was horrible of course) but the important thing is that i learned NOTHING about waves. And that created an avalanche phenomenon that resulted in me having TREMENDOUS problems later on. Now that i know all the material, i feel angry and bitter at the fact that such a horrendous book even exists, let alone be the recommended one for the class.Stay away from this book at all costs.

⭐For many years I have been looking for a thorough book on vibrations and waves. They are important throughout physics and electronics among other subjects.This book is methodical in its introduction of the topics, the maths is well laid out and I have moved on leaps and bounds by referencing the sections of the book where I had blanks before.I wish I had a copy many years ago and it will remain on my book shelf.

⭐I have found this to be one of the best undergraduate physics text books ever. Its explanations are clear and provides an excellent introduction to other areas of physics namely electromagnetic theory and quantum mechanics. The book gives clear introductions to the mathematics used at every stage. I first used this book over 40 years ago during my undergraduate course and have 3 different editions of this excellent book. To be honest I am completely baffled by some of the negative reviews of this book.

⭐This is a set book for physics degree students and is keenly priced too. It was posted to another address very promptly.

⭐After reading some bad reviews, I tried hard to see the good side of this book.It’s not very clear, the techniques used are quite odd sometimes, and it disagreed with my other textbooks and course notes in places.

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