View Full Version : Landau series or Greiner Series - which one's better?
I am just gonna step into undergraduate level physics.
I searched for books for all the topics and I found two great series of books namely, Landau-Lifshitz series of 10 books and Greiner series of 13 books.
As I want to have one of them, please advise which one of them is better. Please answer keeping in mind that I don't want any basic books and want to hit advanced ones with lots of problems.
Dr Transport
Mar1-09, 11:33 AM
Neither is good for undergrad, they are considered graduate texts.
In my opinion Landau's course is much better pedagogically. Not all of the books in the series will be suitable for an average undergraduate, but the books on mechanics, quantum mechanics (nonrelativistic theory), and statistical physics should be accessible to sophomores and above.
Good god, man, stay away from Landau. I've been trying to learn Analytical Mechanics from his book and it is a complete disaster. Greiner is, in my opinion, ten times better than Landau.
Greiner's texts are much newer (and have thus benefited from the older texts) and have more worked problems than Landau's.
Unfortunately, some of my first-edition Greiner texts (i.e. the translated ones) have numerous typos in them. I hope the newer editions have fewer typos.
For your purposes, you are probably better off with Greiner.
However, I do value some of the L&L volumes.
tacosareveryyum
Mar1-09, 03:52 PM
I've enjoyed Greiners books on QED and QCD but I wonder if there is anywhere that sells all his books in one complete set. I've seen complete sets of Landau's books.
Good god, man, stay away from Landau. I've been trying to learn Analytical Mechanics from his book and it is a complete disaster. Greiner is, in my opinion, ten times better than Landau.
Your attempt to learn from it may be a disaster, but the book itself is not. I found it one of the most useful go-to books when I was taking graduate mechanics.
Dr Transport
Mar1-09, 07:33 PM
Your attempt to learn from it may be a disaster, but the book itself is not. I found it one of the most useful go-to books when I was taking graduate mechanics.
I will agree, I learned much more from the Landau series after I got my PhD, when I actually had time to sit down and read them from cover to cover at my own pace without the pressure of classes.
For me, the problem still remains there. Ok. I wanna know which one is more advanced and challenging?
malawi_glenn
Mar2-09, 08:33 AM
I think Greiner is more of learning books, many worked out examples and detail information. L-L is more of rerefence character.
So if you want ones with lots of problems, go for Greiner. But there is no point of getting a complete series of books just for the case of having a complete reference. Get the best books in each area of physics instead.
Thanks to all, who have contributed and answered my query.
I will be waiting for other views also.
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