- #1
loom91
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Hi,
I've acquired a few stat mech texts.
1)Landau & Lif****z: A Course in Theoretical Physics: Statistical Mechanics part 1 and 2
2)Huang
3)Chandler
Which of these should I start with to self-study statistical mechanics? I'm eager to read one of the famous Landau texts, but I'm afraid it may be a bit more dated than Chandler. Huang I've heard uses a non-standard kinetic approach that some love and some hate. Which one to begin with? I'm currently leaning towards Landau.
Also, is a grounding in Halliday and Resnick suficient to tackle Goldstein? I'm borrowing it from a friend, having failed to find the legendary Mechanics by Landau that seems to make everyone salivate. I've also heard that these standard texts offer a cordinate based approach while an alternate breed of texts use manifolds to develop classical mech in a coordinate free manner. This sounds very interesting. Can you tell me more about it? Do these texts carry their own math or is a previous aquitance with topolgy/differential geometry required? What is the best text of this kind?
Thanks a lot.
Molu
I've acquired a few stat mech texts.
1)Landau & Lif****z: A Course in Theoretical Physics: Statistical Mechanics part 1 and 2
2)Huang
3)Chandler
Which of these should I start with to self-study statistical mechanics? I'm eager to read one of the famous Landau texts, but I'm afraid it may be a bit more dated than Chandler. Huang I've heard uses a non-standard kinetic approach that some love and some hate. Which one to begin with? I'm currently leaning towards Landau.
Also, is a grounding in Halliday and Resnick suficient to tackle Goldstein? I'm borrowing it from a friend, having failed to find the legendary Mechanics by Landau that seems to make everyone salivate. I've also heard that these standard texts offer a cordinate based approach while an alternate breed of texts use manifolds to develop classical mech in a coordinate free manner. This sounds very interesting. Can you tell me more about it? Do these texts carry their own math or is a previous aquitance with topolgy/differential geometry required? What is the best text of this kind?
Thanks a lot.
Molu