Statistical Physics (Manchester Physics Series)

The authors make a remarkable and successful attempt to explain and deduce the key principles of statistical mechanicsIt is especially valuable to a self-learnerThe book does not cover modern stat mechanics methods used to model phase transitions

Good book that explains statistical mechanics and thermodinamics

This book is really one of the most interesting books I've ever read, and is my favorite book in physics. The writing style is clear, the figures and graphs well-done, and the book contains valuable exercises and partial solutions. As an undergraduate text it requires a basic background in diff. eq., classical mechanics, e&m etc, but never gets too intimidating. In a graduate statmech class I found the background I received from Mandl carried me almost all the way through. What a great book!

excellent treatment of subject

I bought this over the winter break hoping to get a leap ahead for my stat mech class. This book is almost worthless, it glazes over things in a 10,000 foot view that would bore anyone who wants to know more about stat mech and is without any meat for those looking to get a handle on the subject. I found another book (thanks to Amazon reviewers) and I highly recommend both "A Survival Guide to Statistical Mechanics" by Glazer and Wark (get your thermo under control) followed by "Statistical Physics and Particles" (Kardar) coupled with Feynman's lectures on Stat Mech. The solutions for Kardar are on the net which will aid a person's understanding greatly (the problems are almost impossible without it).

Although I enjoy the book greatly and highly recommend it, I am disappointed with the publisher. The inside cover of mandls books always have a flow diagram with a scheme on how to use it but they printed the quantum physics diagram for my statistical physics one and I cannot find the right one online anywhere.

as a thermodynamics textbook, it is quite underwhelming. it has no solved examples, the excercises are inadequate and just in general its a physics textbook lacking in many areas including the math that is necessary to communicate and encourage problem solving skills. it is wordy and takes too lomg to read. definitely not recommended.

I originally wanted to obtain a self-study guide for thermodynamics and statistical physics. I noticed that F. Mandl's book was always checked out at the local university library which could have implied it was a certain professor's favorite reading assignment, but the current Amazon reviews gave it an excellent grade.I have completed the first chapter and exercises thus far. I have to say that the presentation of the first law of T.D. is very simple, but the exerices are much more challenging than the chapter contents and examples. I have broswed the other chapters and read subsections, and so far the book seems to be written very well and to the point. One of the best things about this book is the Hints for solving problems (which is really a small solution appendix). I would already have carried forward several errors if not for this material. Even if you've taken an introductory sequence in the past, it is good to lay aside your assumptions and allow Mandl to navigate you through without prior prejudice.