College Physics- Volume 1 (with PhysicsNow) Description:

College Physics, Volume 1 (with PhysicsNow) review:
1 stars (Not in my worst nightmares...) - I have hated textbooks before, but this one takes the cake. It is quite possibly the worst one that my professor could have chosen. The authors use such a wild mixture of mind-numbingly simple content and obscure, abstract concepts that the picture that they paint is, to put it bluntly, incoherent. They dance around the definition of vocabulary words, always coming close to defining stuff (but never actually coming out and *saying it*), contradict themselves repeatedly, and assume that the reader understands half the concepts before they are even introduced. Perhaps the most irritating thing about this text is the fact that there is *no* glossary to speak of--if the reader doesn't understand the sketchy definition in the chapter or chapter summary, too bad, because that's all you get! Steer clear of this book, if at all possible.
3 stars (Decent book in combination with class) - I'm currently using this book in a high school physics course, and have found it to be fairly non-technical. The exercises at the end of each chapter vary in difficulty, from the very straight forward to the very difficult. While this book has many strengths, it should not be used by its self. This book requires equations to be derived in class, as they are simply presented at the beginning of the chapter in the book... Overall, this is a great textbook if you have the mind to be able to derive equations and properties yourself.