ISBN0471198269

As an undergraduate physics major I'm required to take a course in math methods of physics, and Boas is the required text. Not only did I save money by purchasing online, but this book is FANTASTIC. The text itself support the arguments we cover in class, but the book knows no bounds. In my other physics and math courses I've already looked up topics and found a complete and easily understood explanations. I'm definitely not selling this one after the course is over.

Just as an update, I'm now taking a course in Complex Analysis with my college's math department, and three weeks into the semester have yet to experience any difficulty with the material since, for the most part, I covered it already in Boas.

Boas does an excellent job presenting the new mathematical material presented in this text. The general example problems are good in the fact that they show the workings and system of the new material while giving you an understanding as well. I read the section, work out the examples and then know how to do the problems. This book is required for my theoretical physics class and is worth every penny.

While this book is very expansive and covers many areas of mathematics used by physicists, the overall structure and format of the book is weak. As a mathematician, I am used to seeing Theorem this and Proposition that with clear mathematical definitions. In this book, however, everything is explained in English and formal mathematical definitions are rarely given.

For instance, take the definition of moment of inertia: "The moment of inertia I of a point mass m about an axis is by definition the product ml^2 of m times the square of the distance l from m to the axis." Why not use mathematical notation to define this? This is just one example of a problem that plagues this book.

Reading this book and trying to use it to solve problems is difficult because you are forced to read through the author's long explanations and scattered examples. Rather than making things succinct and easy to understand, the author insists on giving long run-on examples with necessary information scattered throughout. Everything in this book would be easier to understand and a quicker reference if it was put forward in a decent manner.

There are good math-in-physics books out there: this isn't one of them.

This book is one of the worst mathematical methods books i've seen. When it starts out a new subject it skims over the basics required to understand the subject, it has horrible examples, the problems dont enlighten you on the particular area of mathematics that is being studied, it briefly mentions important concepts, states theorems without proofs or even giving a reason why they stated it. Nearly half of the book is calc 2-3 + diff eq. This book is really just an engineering book, your learn how to plug numbers in and get your answer. Physics isnt about plugging numbers or equations in, its about using math to describe physical phenomena, so a deep understanding of math is needed to really grasp what's happening, and this book is horrible at it. If your looking for a good book on mathematical methods, look at Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics

A Comprehensive Reference of Math Techniques up through the Calculus of Variations

A rare math book that includes a comprehensive collection of the techniques most used across the field of the sciences, from complex numbers, to vector analysis, to ordinary and partial differential equations, up through the calculus of variations and beyond.

Each section is carefully organized with easy to understand derivations, beautifully selected examples and a graduated set of problems to be solved at the end of each section, with selected answers to many of them.

While it could easily be used as an advance math course for undergraduate science and other non-math majors, including engineers, it is solid enough to also be used as an early course for math majors. Although, I would have preferred seeing probability theory introduced twice: once in its elementary and applied form early on and then later, (as is done) in the more advance introduction to probability density functions.

That nitpick aside, this is a first class scholarly effort and a winning combination for anyone who needs an excellent reference or a refresher course in college mathematics.

Five stars.