- #1
nonequilibrium
- 1,412
- 2
Hello,
I'm entering my third year of physics (and also the last undergraduate year in Europe) and I can select a few courses myself. In particular, in the moment I'm wondering between "Solid State Physics" and "Physics of Fluids and Soft Matter" (they would both be introductory).
I've asked a guy who took both classes last year (I can't because I'm already taking a chunk of math) and he summarized it as: fluids is not so interesting and really easy and the lectures notes are confusing; SSP's classes are also confusing and uses Kittel which he found to be horrible, but he considered the material itself to be very interesting (and difficult).
I know the guy well and I think our interests coincide on these matters at least, and based on the above review I'm heavily considering solid state (also because it seems that it's often given to undergraduates, and I'm going to do my masters abroad so that's also a pro for choosing solid state) [at first I was considering fluids because the description on the university site hinted at the use of statistical physics and that it's about complex systems, things which really fascinate me, but the guy that took it was able to tell me that the thermodynamics was mainly writing down the free energy and then minimalizing it, which he called "almost interesting"] but the thing is, I looked at the amazon ratings for Kittel and the ratings are horrible! So how bad is it for an introduction? Apparently we treat the first 7 or 9 chapters of the book. And say it is bad, is there something I can do to make it better? I mean, is there something I can get to accompany it so that the book won't "hurt" me?
Thank you!
I'm entering my third year of physics (and also the last undergraduate year in Europe) and I can select a few courses myself. In particular, in the moment I'm wondering between "Solid State Physics" and "Physics of Fluids and Soft Matter" (they would both be introductory).
I've asked a guy who took both classes last year (I can't because I'm already taking a chunk of math) and he summarized it as: fluids is not so interesting and really easy and the lectures notes are confusing; SSP's classes are also confusing and uses Kittel which he found to be horrible, but he considered the material itself to be very interesting (and difficult).
I know the guy well and I think our interests coincide on these matters at least, and based on the above review I'm heavily considering solid state (also because it seems that it's often given to undergraduates, and I'm going to do my masters abroad so that's also a pro for choosing solid state) [at first I was considering fluids because the description on the university site hinted at the use of statistical physics and that it's about complex systems, things which really fascinate me, but the guy that took it was able to tell me that the thermodynamics was mainly writing down the free energy and then minimalizing it, which he called "almost interesting"] but the thing is, I looked at the amazon ratings for Kittel and the ratings are horrible! So how bad is it for an introduction? Apparently we treat the first 7 or 9 chapters of the book. And say it is bad, is there something I can do to make it better? I mean, is there something I can get to accompany it so that the book won't "hurt" me?
Thank you!