Physics for Scientists and Engineers 8th Edition

Book Preface

In writing this eighth edition of Physics for Scientists and Engineers, we continue our ongoing efforts to improve the clarity of presentation and include new pedagogical features that help support the learning and teaching processes. Drawing on positive feedback from users of the seventh edition, data gathered from both professors and students who use Enhanced WebAssign, as well as reviewers’ suggestions, we have refined the text to better meet the needs of students and teachers.

This textbook is intended for a course in introductory physics for students majoring in science or engineering. The entire contents of the book in its extended version could be covered in a three-semester course, but it is possible to use the material in shorter sequences with the omission of selected chapters and sections. The mathematical background of the student taking this course should ideally include one semester of calculus. If that is not possible, the student should be enrolled in a concurrent course in introductory calculus.

Objectives

This introductory physics textbook has two main objectives: to provide the student with a clear and logical presentation of the basic concepts and principles of physics and to strengthen an understanding of the concepts and principles through a broad range of interesting real-world applications. To meet these objectives, we emphasize sound physical arguments and problem-solving methodology. At the same time, we attempt to motivate the student through practical examples that demonstrate the role of physics in other disciplines, including engineering, chemistry, and medicine.

Changes in the Eighth Edition

A large number of changes and improvements were made for the Eighth Edition of this text. Some of the new features are based on our experiences and on current trends in science education. Other changes were incorporated in response to comments and suggestions offered by users of the seventh edition and by reviewers of the manuscript. The features listed here represent the major changes in the Eighth Edition.

Line-by-Line Revision of the Questions and Problems Set. For the Eighth Edition, the authors reviewed each question and problem and incorporated revisions designed to improve both readability and assignability. To make problems clearer to both students and instructors, this extensive process involved editing problems for clarity, editing for length, adding figures where appropriate, and introducing better problem architecture by breaking up problems into clearly defined parts.

Data from Enhanced WebAssign Used to Improve Questions and Problems. As part of the full-scale analysis and revision of the questions and problems sets, the authors utilized extensive user data gathered by WebAssign, from both instructors who assigned and students who worked on problems from previous editions of Physics for Scientists and Engineers. These data helped tremendously, indicating when the phrasing in problems could be clearer, thus providing guidance on how to revise problems so that they are more easily understandable for students and more easily assignable by instructors in Enhanced WebAssign. Finally, the data were used to ensure that the problems most often assigned were retained for this new edition. In each chapter’s problems set, the top quartile of problems assigned in Enhanced WebAssign have blue-shaded problem numbers for easy identificapreface tion, allowing professors to quickly and easily find the most popular problems assigned in Enhanced WebAssign.

To provide an idea of the types of improvements that were made to the problems, here are problems from the seventh edition, followed by the problem as it now appears in the eighth edition, with explanations of how the problems were improved.