Other Science and math books with nice covers

[Demystifier]

Serious books on math, physics and related sciences usually have covers which are quite boring and visually not very attractive. (Books that have something to do with Universe are a common exception, but when you see a few of them you have seen them all.) But sometimes, covers are really interesting and/or beautiful. Here you are encouraged to present examples of such nice covers of serious science books. Please provide either a picture of the covers or a link to the picture!

Here are my examples:

- Deligne et al (eds) - Quantum Fields and Strings: A Course for Mathematicians
- The covers are a funny and smart comic
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0821820125/?tag=pfamazon01-20

- Schwartz - Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model
- The covers are a piece of modern abstract art
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107034736/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm a sucker for bright colors
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439850534/?tag=pfamazon01-20

On the flip side, here is an example of a cover I don't like. It really stresses me out just looking it!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0076774767/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Demystifier]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439850534/?tag=pfamazon01-20

This links to another nice covers, the Schroeder's "An Introduction to Thermal Physics"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201380277/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Demystifier]

On the flip side, here is an example of a cover I don't like. It really stresses me out just looking it!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0076774767/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Then let me stress you a bit more by applied philosophy:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0872209547/?tag=pfamazon01-20
(BTW, the book is great and it really is an example of useful philosophy.)

 

[S.G. Janssens]

I like the covers of Spivak's series. Here is part one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0914098705/?tag=pfamazon01-20

From that page, the other four volumes are just a click away.

 

[TSny]

I like this one
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416EFbEYEpL._SX350_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

[Demystifier]

The series by Walter Greiner (who passed away less than a year ago) et al also deserves to be shown:

 

[Demystifier]

More abstract art:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/019966515X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Nature friendly covers of Student Friendly QFT:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984513957/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[TeethWhitener]

The series by Walter Greiner (who passed away less than a year ago) et al also deserves to be shown:

These are great. Very Fauvist. It looks like they were all (? most?) designed by Emil Smejkal. I don't know if that means he's the artist as well. But they're pretty neat.

 

[mathwonk]

i like this cover, and the book, indras pearls:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008UZ1KQA/?tag=pfamazon01-20another geometry book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568812205/?tag=pfamazon01-20i like this one, but i am a sucker for quaint portraits of brilliant geniuses:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/048681243X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

full disclosure: i wrote the review of the english translation linked from this page.

 

[Amrator]

Some books I have seen and own.

Introduction to Black Hole Physics by Valeri P. Frolov
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198729111/?tag=pfamazon01-20

An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics by Francis LeBlanc
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470699566/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Modern Electrodynamics by Andrew Zangwill
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521896975/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Foundational Concepts of Neuroscience by David E. Presti
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393709604/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0781778174/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[jasonRF]

The Earth's Ionosphere by Michael Kelley
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0120884259/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Random processes for Engineers by Bruce Hajek
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107100127/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[jasonRF]

I like the covers of Spivak's series. Here is part one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0914098705/?tag=pfamazon01-20

From that page, the other four volumes are just a click away.

I agree those are beautiful books. I took one off the shelf at the library to flip through, though, and clearly I need to learn a few years of math before tackling volume I even!

 

[S.G. Janssens]

I took one off the shelf at the library to flip through, though, and clearly I need to learn a few years of math before tackling volume I even!

I am not sure about that, given your background I think you may already be prepared. If curious, also have a look at the first post in

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ifferential-geometry-series-by-spivak.666556/

and the mentioned prerequisities (sic) in particular.

With that said, I never read the book(s) themselves. (Such is the pleasant thing about this thread: You can judge the book by its cover. )

 

[jasonRF]

(Such is the pleasant thing about this thread: You can judge the book by its cover. )

Best thing I've read all day!

 

[Tracey3]

Books by A.C. Kermode on Aerodynamics have phenomenal retro covers but are really hard to come by these days. Here is my personal favourite:
http://imgur.com/a/SnGe7

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Books by A.C. Kermode on Aerodynamics have phenomenal retro covers but are really hard to come by these days. Here is my personal favourite:
http://imgur.com/a/SnGe7

Someone is scared of formulas? :-)

 

[Tracey3]

Someone is scared of formulas? :-)

Haha, true. I like books like this because its like someone is telling you a story (Formulas spoil everything). :D
I suppose it all originates from the fact that I was told things like theory of relativity as bedtime stories.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Haha, true. I like books like this because its like someone is telling you a story (Formulas spoil everything). :D
I suppose it all originates from the fact that I was told things like theory of relativity as bedtime stories.

:-D
Your parents are scientists?

 

[Tracey3]

Your parents are scientists?

Actually my dad is a Biosystems Engineer and my mum is a Botanist.

 

[NFuller]

I always thought the cover on Griffith's introductory QM book was a bit strange. Here's the front and back:

 

[Amrator]

Actually my dad is a Biosystems Engineer and my mum is a Botanist.

I would argue botany is a science.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

@NFuller before reading the book the cat is still alive, in the end after it has bitten the poison and read it all it's burned out and found dead.

 

[Demystifier]

I would argue botany is a science.

If all science is either physics or stamp collecting, then botany is definitely stamp collecting.

 

[atyy]

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1981)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JVYQAK/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[atyy]

Foundations of Cellular Neurophysiology
By Daniel Johnston and Samuel Miao-Sin Wu
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/foundations-cellular-neurophysiology

I never understood this cover, but it is one of my favourite books.

 

[vanhees71]

I would argue botany is a science.

Yes, and it also explains your dislikes for formulae and math ;-)).

 

[Jozape]

An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Studies of Uncertainties in Physical Measurement
by John R. Taylor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/093570275X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Nothing like a bit of dark humor. I also love clocks on a relativity book and really like:

Special Relativity: For the Enthusiastic Beginner
by David J. Morin
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1542323517/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Andy Resnick]

Serious books on math, physics and related sciences usually hove covers which are quite boring and visually not very attractive. (Books that have something to do with Universe are a common exception, but when you see a few of them you have seen them all.) But sometimes, covers are really interesting and/or beautiful. Here you are encouraged to present examples of such nice covers of serious science books. Please provide either a picture of the covers or a link to the picture!

Since nobody has yet made the joke: You really shouldn't judge books by their covers!

 

[Amrator]

Yes, and it also explains your dislikes for formulae and math ;-)).

You're quoting the wrong person. I love mathematics; I'm a physics major. That was Tracey3 who didn't like formulae.

 

[noir1993]

Chaos
An Introduction to Dynamical Systems
Authors: Alligood, Kathleen T., Sauer, Tim, Yorke, James
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0387946772/?tag=pfamazon01-20

This book features a painting by René Magritte on the cover. I believe the artwork is named Golconda. It's a pity the preview cover isn't in HD but it looked absolutely gorgeous in real life.

 

[noir1993]

Then there is the cover of The Feynmam Lectures on Gravitation.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0813340381/?tag=pfamazon01-20

And I also love the covers of The Feynmam Lectures in Physics - The Definitive Edition. I don't know whether they are internationally available.

 

[Buffu]

I think https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471032948/?tag=pfamazon01-20 is a pretty unique cover.

 

[Demystifier]

I think https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471032948/?tag=pfamazon01-20 is a pretty unique cover.

Yeah, almost like
https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319452606/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[vanhees71]

Hm, isn't there too much color for a serious pure mathbook on it?

 

[Demystifier]

Hm, isn't there too much color for a serious pure mathbook on it?

I propose that all serious book covers should be black with gray letters.

 

[vanhees71]

Yeah, and in pure-math books there must be no nice or even colored figures not to distract the reader from the serious business. Also should the mathematical axioms, definitions, propositions, lemmas, theorems, and proofs be presented in as boring a fashion as possible. Then it is completely anti-intellectual to introduce notations like arrows above vectors and the like. All this is only for stupid physicists not the advanced mathematician! The prime examples must be the texts written by Bourbaki and its members.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Yeah, and in pure-math books there must be no nice or even colored figures not to distract the reader from the serious business. Also should the mathematical axioms, definitions, propositions, lemmas, theorems, and proofs be presented in as boring a fashion as possible. Then it is completely anti-intellectual to introduce notations like arrows above vectors and the like. All this is only for stupid physicists not the advanced mathematician! The prime examples must be the texts written by Bourbaki and its members.

:-D

They write in a bold font vectors, also some physicists write without arrows.

 

[vanhees71]

:-D

They write in a bold font vectors, also some physicists write without arrows.

Well, when I studied, I took a lot of math lectures with the mathematicians, and for them it was utmost a sin to use such mnemonics. All symbols were written in plain symbols, no matter what it was. Already in the Linear Algebra lecture it was quite unusual for us physicists. So when I did my problems, I first wrote it in the physicists' notation with all ornaments around the symbols to understand what I'm calculating. Then I translated the result into the mathematicians' notation.

The most awful thing with this respect was that in Hilbert-spaces they uses almost the Dirac notation (of course with round parantheses instead of left and right wedges), but they made the first argument of the scalar product linear and the 2nd one semilinear, which of course immediately obsoletes the almost ingenious automatism getting things right with the Dirac notation ;-)).

Of course, for the mathematicians the physicists' way to (over)simplify things must be also odd. My functional-analysis professor once stated that physicists come away with that almost always only, because the separable Hilbert space is allmost like a finite-dimensional complex vector space, but only almost, and that's why sometimes you have debates about eigenvectors of the position or momentum operator and the like, which simply lead to nonsense since a distribution is a distribution and not a function ;-)).

 

[Salvador Sosa]

The fundamentals of physics 1 and 2 by R Shankar have nice covers

 

[mathwonk]

re #23: so for the average student, the cat remains always alive?

 

[Demystifier]

Gibilisco and Crowhurst - Mastering Technical Mathematics
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071494480/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Wrichik Basu]

I like this cover:

As we as the inner contents.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Another one that I found interesting:

 

[Buffu]

If computer science counts...

One of best books on the subject :

 

[The Bill]

One of my favorite covers is that of Fluid Dynamics for Physicists by T. E. Faber:

 

[Demystifier]

Yes, books on fluid mechanics often have nice covers, especially those for engineers.

 

[lekh2003]

On the flip side, here is an example of a cover I don't like. It really stresses me out just looking it!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0076774767/?tag=pfamazon01-20

That is the evilest thing I can ever imagine.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

That is the evilest thing I can ever imagine.

I wonder if it says anything on the difficulty of the problems in this textbook?

 

[lekh2003]

I wonder if it says anything on the difficulty of the problems in this textbook?

I think my statement is a blanket statement on both the contents and cruel wrapping of the contents.