Modern Classical Physics: Optics, Fluids, Plasmas, Elasticity, Relativity, and Statistical Physics

Having recently acquired this text, I can add little to the extant reviews, except to say: Study the book ! For more, read the Princeton University Press Blog, including an interview with 2017 Nobel Prize winner Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford. Regarding this book, read: "LIGO’s gravitational wave detectors rely on an amazingly wide range of classical physics concepts and tools, so time and again we draw on LIGO for illustrations. The theory of random processes, spectral densities, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, the Fokker-Planck equation; shot noise, thermal noise, thermoelastic noise, optimal filters for extracting weak signals from noise; paraxial optics, Gaussian beams, the theory of coherence, squeezed light, interferometry, laser physics; the interaction of gravitational waves with light and with matter; the subtle issue of the conservation or non conservation of energy in general relativity— all these and more are illustrated by LIGO in our book." (10/12/2017, Kip Thorne, Princeton University Press Interview). Addendum (August 2019): An engineering student lamented about his academic performance in a recent course of fluid dynamics. Happily, Thorne and Blandford can be recommended as an excellent guide on this topic. Having read Feynman (volume two, chapters 38 through 41) and having viewed videos relevant to the topic (referenced here pages 731 and 790; films from the Committee for Fluid Mechanics, now available Youtube), you are prepared to tackle Thorne and Blandford, their chapter 12, 13 and 14. These chapters are replete with insight. I enjoyed, and highlight: “analysis of fluid flow based on some general ideas that ought to be familiar from other areas of physics.” (pages 750-752). The analysis is a crash-course in “how to think like a physicist."

I would like to emphasize an aspect of this book that none of the other reviewers have mentioned. The very first paragraph on page 1 offers what I consider the central vision of this ambitious text: "In this book, a central theme will be a Geometric Principle: The laws of physics must all be expressible as geometric (coordinate-independent and reference-frame independent) relationships between geometric objects (scalars, vectors, tensors,...) that represent physical entities." Kip Thorne, Charles Misner, and John Archibald Wheeler attempted to fulfill this same geometric vision for General Relativity in the early 1970s with the publication of the 1279-page landmark work, Gravitation. One can therefore see this recent book by Blandford and Thorne as the extension of the geometric program to many areas of classical physics. For those of us who are "true believers" in the geometric program, this book is a welcome addition to the literature. One remark on the physical quality of the book under review. Despite having 1511 pages, the book is hardbound and sturdy enough to hold up under years of study. The paper quality is first-rate, and there are even color graphics scattered throughout. Princeton University Press is to be commended for producing a first-class textbook at a reasonable price. Their recent hardbound republication of the classic book Gravitation is also extremely well done, and for an amazingly low price.

Modern Classical Physics will undoubtedly become a classic learning material and reference text for many years to come. The overall presentation of the text exceeds the standard-- free of clutter and aided with timely and accurate visual representations of diagrams and/or images of real phenomena. The mathematical operations used in the book are pretty much standard as far as undergraduate mathematical physics with the exception of some new (at least new for me) notations which are introduced in hopes of supplementing the book's "geometric approach" to physics. An important note to make is that the physics isn't changed in this process, but rather just the viewpoint in which it is observed. Thorne and Blandford clearly show that this is the case early on,in spite of some differences in the mathematical language as compared with many other modern texts. These differences are quite minor once you get a grip on them, and I myself have been able to substitute their notation with my own with little effort (though there is no difference computationally). Most of the topics covered (if not all) will be supplemented with real life applications demonstrated in examples and exercise. Do note that many of these are quite sophisticated and that the authors encourage the readers to use external references if needed. If you are familiar with Special Relativity, I recommend skipping the first chapter on it until GR is introduced, and then returning to it for some guidance on notation. Otherwise, the entire chapter is pretty standard in terms of key concepts and computations. It isn't used much by itself throughout the book and when it is, a pretty simple translation from nonrelativistic--> relativistic laws is normally offered. The book is dense and powerful, but does not lack mathematical sophistication. Be prepared for the maths! Thank you Thorne and Blandford and everyone else who worked on this masterpiece... I know I will probably use this as a reference for decades to come.

I took this course (Ph. 136 Applications of Classical Physics) at Caltech 33 years ago from Kip Thorne (I also had Roger Blandford as a professor for high energy astrophysics) - they are both top notch physicists and teachers as well. Some have wished the book was broken up in 3-4 books. I disagree, I suspect most of these complaints are by readers in the early chapters of the book. But what happens when you get to the later parts, on lets say, plasma physics, and need to refer back to a statistical mechanics chapter - and the other book is somewhere else. I am glad it is one book. My only criticism is that the book could be shorter. The authors spend many pages telling you every chapter and every part what they are going to do in the coming pages - in my opinion they should just dive in and do it. I don't need a readers or professor's teaching guide for a graduate level textbook.

What's very slightly smaller than a breadbox, weighs about as much as one of those armored Chevy Suburbans favored by the Secret Service, and packed with most known information about relativity, optics, statistical mechanics, fluid and plasma dynamics, and elasticity? If you took the hint and guessed Modern Classical Physics: Optics, Fluids, Plasmas, Elasticity, Relativity, and Statistical Physics by Kip S. Thorne and Roger D. Blandford, you would be right. Yes, my hard copy finally arrived. Fans of Thorne's previous collaboration in the monster <strike>truck</strike> textbook category, Gravitation, with Misner and Wheelermay be heartened to note that MCP shares the same large page format, has nearly 300 more pages, and weighs a lot more, thanks in part to its hardcover format. As to exactly why this was published as a single volume, rather than three, four or even five normal sized textbooks, I can only speculate, but my favorite is that it is the author's thumb in the eye to the stereotype of the puny and pusillanimous physics major. Pack this and MTW around campus for a while and you will soon have calves and guns like Dwayne Johnson.

This is a great coverage of classical mechanics beyond the basics. The strong geometric approach throughout offers concise and powerful insight into a huge number of examples with a very consistent perspective. This book is exemplary in coverage of material and pedagogical style.

Seriously advanced modern physics text book that covers everything in 1,500 pages. Warning: it weighs almost 7 pounds.

A bit of an odd book. It is so huge one wonders why all in one volume? Physically it is hard to handle. The aim seems a comprehensive coverage of Fluids, Plasma, Elasticity they is done very well. (Little classical mechanics and electrodynamics, but that was the plan as stated up front.) Throne being one of the greatest relativistic physicists in modern times it is disappointing that the section on General Relativity is a bit brief. Thought gravitational radiation would be covered in more detail than it is.

Soy profesor y me hablaron de este libro, que me ha parecido MUCHO MEJOR de lo que imagiba: lo mas importante, el contenido FANTASTICO, muy sencillo y didactico, a lo que hay que añadir muy buena calidad de encuadernado y papel. Muy buena edicion, merece la pena¡

Recently retired from paid work I thought it useful to delve again into the "advanced basics" of theoretical physics. Educated an astrophysicist I knew part of the work of Roger Blandford from the seventies / eighties. My "prejudice" was, partly for that reason, that the book might be worthwhile. And indeed, the book is a true cathedral of knowledge. Of course I haven't digested it all by now, but I have studied the statistical physics part. It may sound over the top, but I thought it a miracle. I used Landau / Lifshitz for studies in statistical physics way back in the seventies, but the presentation by Thorne and Blandford is much clearer. Whereas in L/L the treatment of the subject is obviously good, it is more difficult to follow than the Thorne /Blandford treatment. The autors make use of concise tables, and they treat the ensembles (canonical, microcanonical &) more systematically than L/L. I really got the feeling that I got it sorted out really well. The exercises offered in the book are usually part of the theory, and certainly demand serious work from the reader. The book is written by physicists, and one notices that especially in the chapter on Random Processes. Rigorous enough, but perhaps less so than in a mathematician's treatment. Of course there is always room for criticism. The explanation of the Second Law by coarse graining fails to convince, because it looks as if the physicist with his limited powers is "guilty". This is a criticism on the explanation as such, and has nothing to do with their - again excellent - presentation. There might be better ways to explain the law (Penrose?). After I have worked my way through the chapter I will happily jump on other parts of the book. All in all, the authors have done a great service to the (astro)physics community by writing this book, for which we can only be most grate ful! Manuel Nepveu

Già dall’aggettivo “Modern” si intuisce che questo testo affronta argomenti di fisica “classica” (nel limite in cui h~0) in modo non convenzionale. Gli autori enfatizzano il fatto che la fisica classica è tutt’ora una disciplina indispensabile per la comprensione e le applicazioni tecnologiche attuali ma che necessita di un linguaggio matematico diverso da quello utilizzato nell’800 se si vuole affrontare la connessione tra i fenomeni macroscopici e quelli quantistici. Il testo si sofferma sui principi fondamentali della fisica classica in se stessa ed in relazione alla fisica quantistica. Il linguaggio matematico utilizzato sin dal primo capitolo è quello geometrico (ovvero che le leggi fisiche debbano esprimersi indipendentemente da coordinate e sistemi di riferimento). Il testo consta di circa 1500 pagine e tratta unicamente argomenti di ottica, fluidi, plasmi, elasticità, relatività (anche generale) e fisica statistica. Gli esercizi proposti sono molto numerosi ed illuminanti. Così come nella “bibbia” Gravitation, anche qui abbiamo argomenti suddivisi in due tracce, di cui la T2 contenente argomenti che si possono tralasciare in una prima lettura.

J' ai acheté ce livre pour offrir à un physicien qui ne l'avait pas trouvé. Après un livre abîmé et une action efficace d'Amazon, un volume parfait est parvenu à son destinataire physicien théoricien qui l’attendait impatiemment car c' est parait-il un must dans la physique actuelle... Pour spécialistes bien sûr.

A much needed book for theoretical physics.