College Physics

Reviewed by Raymond Duplessis, Associate Professor, Delgado Community College on 6/20/17

Comprehensiveness rating: 4

The coverage in the book is similar to others such as Cutnell Physics or Knight. The chapter topics and order are virtually the same.I found the index to be more straightforward and organized in a way that "'students would think" to find information in the text.

The human body application problems are very good, particularly the torque problems in Chapter 9

There should be a handy reference for math and trigonometric identities in the Appendix. My students use them frequently.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The information that I was able to review in most detail from Chapters 1 - 28 which our main coverages, was surprisingly accurate. No major errors were noticed. There are a good number of typos though throughout. The eariy chapters 1-8 were spot on. Chapters 18 - 24 could use a little tuning up as the chapters seem disconnected in reading.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The Electricity and Magnetism chapters will probably need changes sooner than later. The hard drive example in a few years will probably be as useful as a vinyl record example. Some eariler introduction of solid state examples may be prudent.

Clarity rating: 4

The reading level is uneven throughout the text, but reads at a level that should be in the community college students' comfort zone. Some textbooks seam to read as if they were written by PhDs for PhDs. This book was a good read for students that are transitioning from developmental courses.

Consistency rating: 4

The structure of the text is fairly consistent with the usage of terms, examples, chapter and subchapter heading and divisions.

Modularity rating: 4

Again, this text falls in line with similar texts and there are always different ways to structure the material. The separation of fulid mechanics into statics and dynamics with applications is a good touch.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

There is an unevenness in the text after Fluids, but that seems typical of all of the trig-based level texts. The flow of the book is no better or worse that any other book on the market. No one has published a text yet that doesn't turn into a selected topics in Physics after fluids. The question I always have from students in the later chapters is how does this relate to the earlier chapters. I think later chapters should have small "Making the connection / Tying it together" passages that relate/contrast the later topics to the foundational topics.

Interface rating: 4

The linking and navigation components function fine in TOC and index as do the links to the figure within the chapters and the topic links in the examples. Some linking feature should be left out of the PDF. For example, the use of links to previous chapters in problem examples without a way to get back to what you were reading can be a bit annoying especially if you weren't keeping track of the page or example you were looking at.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are a few error scattered throughout the text. Minor error at best.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No problems here at all.

I was surprised at the how well this book comparer to what we are currently using. I plan to recommend a pilot of this text in the upcoming spring 2018 semester. Since, it is a good equivalent, the price is an advantage.