Intro Physics Why do Indians prefer Verma's textbook for physics Olympiad preparation?

[RubinLicht]

My question would be regarding the differences between these textbooks. What does each textbook do well? What are each books weak chapters? Difference between old resnick and new resnick? And why do Indians fanboy/girl over Verma's textbook and should I use it?

I am preparing for physics Olympiad in the US, this is my first time doing it and I am in eleventh grade, i have finished studying all the mechanics chapters in kleppner and kolenkow, and am about to proceed onto studying other topics in one or two of the above textbooks in preparation for usapho. Thank you for your time and advice, and have a great day!

 

[jtbell]

While you're waiting for a response, try a forum search (top right of this page) for "ipho". We often get questions about preparing for it.

 

[Kninfinite]

well HC verma's is good for studying Photoelectric effect and thermodynamics but aint much good for electrodynamics. As for resnik the newer the version the bettter but I would recommend Introduction to electrodynamics By DJ Griffith.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

My question would be regarding the differences between these textbooks. What does each textbook do well? What are each books weak chapters? Difference between old resnick and new resnick? And why do Indians fanboy/girl over Verma's textbook and should I use it?

I am preparing for physics Olympiad in the US, this is my first time doing it and I am in eleventh grade, i have finished studying all the mechanics chapters in kleppner and kolenkow, and am about to proceed onto studying other topics in one or two of the above textbooks in preparation for usapho. Thank you for your time and advice, and have a great day!

Dr. H. C. Verma is a professor in IIT Kanpur in Department of Physics. His books are very good as starters to the great examination in India: JEE, and also very good for other exams. The text is, to some extent, less helpful, but nevertheless the book is fabulous.

 

[Mastermind01]

Verma is like a low level hrw. He himself says so in the preface, his main motivation was to make hrw accessible for Indian students. So, if you have the original hrw definitely read that.

 

[Buffu]

My question would be regarding the differences between these textbooks. What does each textbook do well?

Nothing.

What are each books weak chapters?

What does weak mean ? none of them have level of content of the book you read.

Difference between old resnick and new resnick?

How old ? that book is old. My parents used it.

And why do Indians fanboy/girl over Verma's textbook and should I use it?

That book is a very big mess.
I never read that book but I have looked into it. The book looks like a big mess. To give some perspective on how bad that book is, imagine you took the exercises from the single variable book of Spivak and took theory from a introductory high school book and combined them into one book.
If I say the book is not good as it does not contain enough theory you can always counter it with something like "the theory part is enough for the student to do the exercises if (s)he puts effort in it" and you are correct but youir didactics is completely wrong. Nobody should spend 5 hours on doing a exercise that, if taught properly can be done in minutes. Introduction to Mechanics contains more or less the same problems but with a clear theory part.
To give you an example of how bad Verma's book is, there was a example problem on bead on rope (that can be done with a simple application of constraints) in that book, the book uses all sorts of cheap maths to solve it in more than a page.

Just my thought on it, take it with a grain of salt as I have not read the book, from what I have looked it is just bad.[/QUOTE]