Textbook for light, heat, waves

[Vbc]

There's an undergraduate physics course at my uni that covers these topics and the course description is: Mathematical descriptions for classical physics: oscillations, mechanical waves, electromagnetic waves, physical optics and thermodynamics. Are there any good studying materials/textbooks I could use that covers these topics (the suggested textbooks for the course aren't very good which is why I'm asking here).

 

[Vanadium 50]

What book did they recommend? And what is "not very good" about it?

 

[Vbc]

What book did they recommend? And what is "not very good" about it?

Hi, I don't mean that the textbook is poorly written, but there are multiple listed textbooks for the class that the professor says are meant to be supplementary, so I'd like to know if there are other textbooks out there on the topic.

 

[Vanadium 50]

What books did they recommend?

 

[Vbc]

What books did they recommend?

French's Vibrations and Waves, Pedrotti's Intro to Optics, and Pain's The physics of vibrations and waves

 

[jasonRF]

I took a class that partially used an earlier edition of Pain's book - it was just okay. One free resource is the book by Georgi, at about the same level as the books you are listing. It looks pretty good to me:
https://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi/new.htm
French's book is well written but doesn't cover all of the material, of course.

For thermodynamics it depends a lot on what the course covers. Did prior courses already cover the thermodynamics chapters in your intro physics textbook? If not, that would be the place to start.

jason

 

[Vbc]

I took a class that partially used an earlier edition of Pain's book - it was just okay. One free resource is the book by Georgi, at about the same level as the books you are listing. It looks pretty good to me:
https://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hgeorgi/new.htm
French's book is well written but doesn't cover all of the material, of course.

For thermodynamics it depends a lot on what the course covers. Did prior courses already cover the thermodynamics chapters in your intro physics textbook? If not, that would be the place to start.

jason

Students aren't expected to have a great thermodynamics background in the course

 

[Vanadium 50]

French is OK. I think you will find relatively few books at this level - above elementary physics and below upper-division undergrad. It's a pretty thin slice.