Is Principles of Physics by Halliday and Resnick Suitable for IPhO Preparation?

[ubergewehr273]

Is Resnick Halliday's textbook "Principles of physics" a good book ?
Is it useful for olympiads like IPhO (International Physics Olympiad) ?
It would be good if somebody could give a review on the book ?

 

[jedishrfu]

Halliday and Resnick is a good book used for many years for freshman level physics in college. It's not designed specifically to help you with the IPO style of problems.

However, the IPO site does have a questions and answers section that may help:

http://ipho.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/problems-and-solutions.html

Perhaps others can provide better discussion on the Halliday book as I last used it in the 1980's and has gone thru a lot of revisions and extensions over the years.

 

[jtbell]

There are three "Halliday and Resnick" books: Physics, Fundamentals of Physics, and Principles of Physics. The differences are discussed a bit in this thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...questions-about-different-editions-uk.631302/

 

[phinds]

Gads ... it's been about 50 years since I took undergrad physics and we used Halliday and Resnick back then. Must be decent to have that kind of staying power.

 

[jedishrfu]

Halliday and Resnick, Fundamentals of Physics came out at a time when a standard was needed for teaching modern physics to college students. It became the Gold standard. I liked it a lot when I had to study it even though our Physics dept chose another text for freshman use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Physics

Resnick taught at RPI during the time he co-wrote the book with Halliday and it was my impression that RPI got some royalties from the book though I have no reference for that. However, I am sure the publisher has made out very well.

Also now that Halliday and Resnick have passed on, Jearl Walker of Scientific American fame is the editor of the series which is still going strong.

That reminds me Christmas is coming maybe Santa will bring one along...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118230728/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Daverz]

I would go for "Physics" rather than "Fundamentals" (I don't know "Principles"), as it has harder problem sets.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047134530X/?tag=pfamazon01-20