Reviews for From Research to Practice in Geotechnical Engineering

The average rating for From Research to Practice in Geotechnical Engineering based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-29 00:00:00 Albert Deans Most would probably agree that finding a good graduate-level textbook on statistical mechanics is a near-impossible endeavor. However, your quest may be at an end, because this is probably the best graduate-level textbook out there to date. Graduate texts, in my experience, rarely attempt to provide physical insight. Rather, they are focused on rigorously deriving the laws and equations that you need in order to perform physical calculations. I'm not saying I agree with this methodology, but it does seem to be the case more often than not. And this book is no exception. Prerequisite knowledge for this text would include at least an undergraduate class in quantum mechanics (familiarity with the operator notation, the operator version of Schrodinger's equation, as well as choice of space and momentum representations) and an acquaintance with Hamilton's canonical equations (mainly the q and p variables). Without this background, much of the latter chapters might be hard to follow. This book covers a complete list of topics, though I found it lacking in a couple of ways. The most glaring omission is that there is no mention of the Boltzmann Transport Equation. And there is no in-depth treatment of the Debye theory of phonons, though I have to admit the treatment here is as good as any I've seen in other books. Many of Pathria's derivations (for example, deriving the conditions for Bose-Einstein condensation) are much shorter and simpler than those in other texts. It is assumed you already know how to do the mathematics, and stat mech is by nature a very mathematical subject, though Pathria did delegate much of the mathematical stuff -- like Guassian integrals, Gamma functions, etc -- to a few concise appendices. Compared to the dense morass of mathematics you'll find in some graduate texts, Pathria is a breath of fresh air. If you are looking for a gentler introduction to statistical mechanics, I can't recommend enough "Thermal Physics" by Kittel and Kroemer. This is the de facto standard for an undergraduate course in statistical mechanics. The only drawback I see with Kittel and Kroemer is that it is an entirely quantum-based approach to statistical mechanics, and that's not what everyone is looking for. Perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps not, the quantum approach does make the mathematics easier to follow (assuming a very passing acquaintance with quantum mechanics), since you deal only with sums rather than the more complicated integrals over phase space that are required for a classical treatment. Overall, I think this is the best graduate level book in statistical mechanics that I've come across, far superior to Huang or Reichl. Feynman's and Landau's books, though dated, are also worth looking into, because it's hard to beat the master instructors of physics. From my conversations with graduate students, I think most agree that this is one of the best graduate level stat mech books out there.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-27 00:00:00 Cary Cahill I've already skimmed through the book in my Masters last year. Its mathematically rigorous comparing with other textbooks and certainly one of the best books out there.